UC-NRLF 


Sb7   OE^ 


GIF* 


GIFT   OF 
Prof.    C.    A.    Kofoid 


BEAUTIES 


OP    THE 


HON.  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 


Opinions  of  the  New  York  Press  on  the  first 
edition  of  this  Work. 

Beauties  of  Daniel  Webster. — "  A  handsome  little  volume 
of  92  pages  bearing  this  title,  containing  judiciously  select 
ed  extracts  from  the  speeches,  addresses,  &c.,  of  that 
distinguished  gentleman.  The  work  is  edited  by  James 
Rees,  who  has  added  a  Critical  Essay  on  the  genius  and 
writings  of  Mr.  Webster.  Mr.  Rees  has  discharged  both 
duties  well  and  ably,  and  we  wish  the  book  might  go  into 
the  hands  of  every  person  capable  of  reading,  from  New 
Brunswick  to  Texas." — New  York  Gazette. 

"  This  is  the  title  of  a  neat  little  work,  prepared  with 
much  care  by  Mr.  James  Rees.  The  selections  are  judi 
ciously  made  and  admirably  arranged.  Mr.  Webster  is 
one  of  the  great  men  of  the  country  never  at  a  loss  for 
words,  powerful  in  argument,  fascinating  and  beautiful  as 
an  orator.  The  critical  essay  is  enthusiastic,  eloquent,  and 
truthful.  The  work  will  meet  with  an  extensive  sale. — 
N.  Y.  Whig. 

"  Most  appropriately  is  this  beautiful  and  precious  little 
volume  dedicated  to  '  the  friends  of  Liberty  throughout  the 
world,  and  to  the  admirers  of  the  English  language  in  its 
purity.' 

"  We  rejoice,  therefore,  that  selections,  so  tastefully  made 
as  those  in  this  volume,  have  been  put  forth  in  a  shape  and 
form  to  give  them  wide  circulation  among  all  classes  ;  for 
the  extracts  are  such  as  no  American,  of  whatever  party, 
can  fail  to  admire. 

"  We  commend  these  Beauties  to  all  our  readers." — N.  Y. 
American. 

"  The  passages  are  selected  with  judgment  and  good 
taste,  presenting  a  rare  assemblage  of  noble  thoughts,  clo 
thed  in  surpassing  eloquence  of  language.  We  are  glad 
to  see  that  the  Editor  has  been  careful  not  to  omit  that 
magnificent  outburst  of  patriotism,  the  conclusion  of  the 
great  speech  in  answer  to  Mr.  Hayne  on  Nullification." — 
New  York  Commercial  Advertiser. 

"  Mr.  James  Rees  has  been  culling  Beauties  from  the 
writings  and  speeches  of  Daniel  Webster.  It  may  well 
be  doubted  whether  the  world  can  boast  of  another  mind 
of  equal  power  and  beauty  with  that  of  Mr.  Webster."  — 
Albany  Evening  Journal. 


JUST    PUBLISHED, 

THE    THIRD    AMERICAN    EDITION     OF 

MY    NIECE; 

OR, 

THE    STRANGER'S    GRAVE. 


Opinions  oftlie  Press. 

"  A  deeply  afflicting  story  of  guilt,  and  sorrow,  and 
death  —  well  written,  and  impressing  strongly  the  saluta 
ry  admonition  to  beware  of  the  first  beginnings  of  sin.  It 
is  published  in  a  very  handsome  style,  and  is  a  book  to  be 
commended  for  its  literary  merit,  and  still  more  for  its 
moral  tendency."  —  New  York  Review. 

"  A  thrilling  story,  with  an  awful  catastrophe  —  well 
told,  and  original."  —  Ladies'  Companion. 

"  This  is  a  reprint  of  one  of  the  most  interesting  and 
beautiful  works  for  the  young  to  be  found.  The  publisher 
deserves  much  praise  for  the  admirable  style  in  which  the 
volume  is  put  forth.  Its  typography  is  unexceptionably 
neat,  and  the  embossed  muslin  binding  is  very  elegant. 
We  cheerfully  commend  this  work  to  the  attention  of  pa 
rents."  —  New  York  Mirror. 

"  This  beautiful  narrative,  having  been  for  some  time 
out  of  print,  is  now  reproduced  in  a  style,  both  as  regards 
the  typographical  execution  and  the  binding,  which  can 
not  fail  to  procure  for  it  a  lasting  popularity.  It  is  indeed 
the  most  perfect  bijoux  of  its  kind  that  has  ever  yet  ema 
nated  from  the  American  press ;  and  both  the  publisher 
and  the  printer  are  entitled  to  great  credit,  for  the  excel 
lent  taste  they  have  displayed,  in  presenting  '  My  INiece' 
to  the  public  in  an  attire  so  exquisitely  in  keeping  with  her 
pretensions  and  intrinsic  merit." — New  York  Expositor. 

"  This  beautiful  and  instructive  tale,  which  has  been 


VI 

out  of  print  for  some  years,  comes  before  the  public  in  a 
style  worthy  of  all  praise.  Beautifully  printed  and  beau 
tifully  bound,  externally  it  resembles  our  best  annuals,  and 
internally  a  great  superiority  is  evinced  over  the  most  of 
them.  The  instructive  moral  of  the  tale  may  be  gathered 
from  the  author's  concluding  paragraph,  which  we  ex 
tract  : 

"  '  Reader,  I  have  told  thee  a  tale  of  no  ordinary  wo ; 
but  it  has  a  moral  in  it.  Whatever  thou  mayest  be,  or 
however  situated,  guard  well  the  first  avenues  which  lead 
to  sin  ;  for,  if  one  false  step  betaken,  thou  canst  not  tell  of 
how  many  evils  it  may  be  the  prelude.'  " — N.  Y.  Literary 
Gazette. 

"  This  is  the  title  of  an  interesting  work,  re-printed  in 
a  very  elegant  form,  by  Edward  Walker,  of  Fulton  street, 
New  York.  The  tale  is  one  of  deep  interest,  and  presents 
a  faithful  picture  of  the  progress  and  consequences  of 
vice,  and  will,  if  rightly  understood,  exert  an  important 
and  beneficial  influence  upon  the  youthful  mind,  in  pro 
ving  how  near  to  the  indulgence  of  innocent  enjoyments, 
is  the  barrier  that  separates  it  from  the  first  steps  of  vice. 
The  tale  is  told  with  an  unpretending  and  delicate  beauty. 
Even  in  those  passages  where  it  is  necessary  to  portray 
the  state  of  feeling  and  the  power  of  temptation,  the  au 
thor  has  preserved  a  purity  of  style  and  description,  very 
admirable.  None,  but  the  fastidious,—  whose  opinion  is 
usually  worth  nothing  at  all  — can  find  any  fault  with 
either  the  contents  or  the  way  in  which  it  is  got  up.  There 
are  some  passages  of  extraordinary  power,  and  of  a 
highly  dramatic  character.  Witness  the  interview  be 
tween  Margaret  and  her  repentant  and  unhappy  brother. 
In  a  very  judicious  and  brief  introduction  —  the  publisher 
sets  forth  his  opinion — one,  by  the  bye,  which  we  wish  he 
could  disseminate  through  the  New  York  community,  viz.: 
that  good  editions  at  reasonable  prices  are  always  cheaper 
than  common  ones.  We  have  seen  few  neater  works,  as 
regards  typography  and  binding,  turned  out  from  New 
York.  We  have  not  yet  seen  the  work  advertised  in  this 
city.  We  wish  it  may  have  an  extended  circulation  for 
the  interest  it  excites  and  the  moral  it  enforces.  If  our 
opportunity  would  allow,  our  readers  should  have  an 
extract. — Boston  Atlas. 


/ 


E.WaJker,  N.York. 


THE 

BEAUTIES 

OF   THE 

HON.  DANIEL  WEBSTER; 

SELECTED  AND  ARRANGED. 

WITH  A 

CRITICAL  ESSAY 

ON 

HIS    GENIUS    AND    WRITINGS. 


SECOND  EDITION, 

WITH  A  PORTRAIT,  AND  CONSIDERABLE  ADDITIONS. 


NEW  YORK: 

EDWARD    WALKER, 

No.  112  Fulton-street. 

1839. 


E540 
w 


ENTERED, 
according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1839,  by 

EDWARD  WALKER, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United 
States  for  the  Southern  District  of  New  York. 


-Vfc  l::  s'i/'/'z <    < 

<  yy  <  «» i  ,T\  r«   cf  :     ^ 


CRAIGHEAD  &  ALLEN,  PRINTERS, 
No.  112  Fulton-street,  New  York. 


TO  THE 

FRIENDS    OF    LIBERTY 

THROUGHOUT  THE  WORLD, 

AND  TO  THE 

ADMIRERS    OF    THE    ENGLISH    LANGUAGE 

IN   ITS    PURITY, 
THE  FOLLOWING  SELECTIONS 

FROM   THE  WORKS  OF 

THE  HON.  DANIEL  WEBSTER, 

ARE  RESPECTFULLY  DEDICATED, 

BY   THE  EDITOR. 

New  York,  April,  1839. 


M11M87 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


THE  first  Edition  of  this  work,  it  will  be 
remembered,  appeared  in  a  small  form,  and 
notwithstanding  the  errors  which  had  unavoid 
ably  crept  into  it,  it  was  received  with  much 
favor  by  the  public,  and  met  with  much  com 
mendation  from  the  Press.  The  original  in 
tention  of  the  Editor,  was  to  present  a  work 
containing  the  majority  of  the  splendid  pas 
sages  of  Mr.  Webster's  speeches ;  but,  cir 
cumstances  over  which  he  had  no  control, 
prevented  the  fulfilment  of  that  intention.  A 
new  edition  of  the  work  having  been  called 
for,  the  present  publisher  procured  the  services 
of  Mr.  Rees,  with  a  view  to  publish  the  entire 
work  as  originally  contemplated  by  him.  The 
success  of  the  undertaking  will  be  determined 


by  the  public.  Of  the  value  of  the  contents 
of  the  work,  it  is  unnecessary  to  speak ;  and 
with  regard  to  the  form,  the  publisher  has 
only  to  observe,  that  he  has  done  his  utmost  to 
produce  a  book  worthy  of  the  matter  contained 
in  it.  A  portrait  has  also  been  added,  executed 
by  a  leading  artist  of  this  city,  expressly  for 
this  edition  ;  and  much  care  has  been  taken  to 
prevent  error  either  in  the  arrangement,  or 
typography.  This  work  should  undoubtedly 
be  the  text  book  of  every  American,  and  the 
young  should  be  made  well  acquainted  with  the 
spirit  and  beauty  of  its  sentiments;  and  with 
this  view,  the  publisher  cannot  but  suggest  the 
propriety  of  adopting  it  (probably  not  at  a 
very  distant  period)  in  our  schools,  as  a  gen 
eral  reading  book,  presenting,  as  it  does, 
examples  of  elocution  and  specimens  of  com 
position,  unexcelled  in  the  English  language. 

E.  W. 

112  Fulton  street.     \ 
New  York,  April,  1839.  5 


PREFACE. 


IT  might  appear  at  first  sight  to  be  an  easy 
task  to  select  prominent  passages  from  the 
writings  of  any  author;  but  in  the  instance  of 
the  following  work,  a  new  and  singular  diffi 
culty  has  presented  itself  to  the  completion  of 
my  task.  As  a  traveller  suddenly  arriving  at 
the  brow  of  a  hill,  beholds  the  whole  mighty 
prospect  burst  on  his  vision  with  dazzling 
beauty,  and  requires  to  collect  his  overpowered 
faculties  to  examine  each  portion  of  the  scenery 
respectively,  nor  then  feels  satisfied,  because 
the  beauty  of  the  whole  is  formed  by  the  con 
trast  of  the  parts ;  so  in  the  selection  of  the 

following  passages — the  continuity,  the  com- 
B 


8 


pleteness,  the  light  and   shadow   of  Oratory, 
contained  in  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Webster,  has 
required  considerable  care  in  the  choice  of  any 
part  separate  from  the  whole.     It  is  my  wish 
as  well  as  my  object  to  lead   the  thoughtful 
mind  to  a  clear  and  careful  attention  to  the 
extraordinary  productions  of  the  most  original 
mind  of  the  age  ;    and  I  believe  this  object 
will  be  accomplished.     In  the  following  work 
the   reader   is   presented   with    the   detached 
.leaves  of  the  flower  ;  and  if  in  their  isolated 
state  they  should  attract  the  mind,  as  they 
inevitably   must,   and  fascinate   it  with  their 
beauty,  the  desire  must  be  raised  and  gratified, 
of  gazing  on   the  whole.      The   reader  can 
scarcely  open  a  single  leaf  of  this  work,  or 
read  a  single    page,  without    being  at  once 
struck  with  the  power  of  intellect  displayed. 
I  scarcely  believe  that  America,  proud  as  she 


is  of  Webster,  yet  rightly  comprehends  the 
immeasurable  benefit  which  he  has  conferred 
on  her  cause,  and  the  cause  of  liberty  gener 
ally  throughout  the  world  ;  nor  the  influence 
which  these  magnificent  compositions  are  cal 
culated  to  exert  on  all  classes  of  society.  And 
should  this  little  work  have  the  effect  of  ex 
citing  the  attention  of  Americans  generally, 
and  induce  a  deep  and  careful  perusal  of  the 
great  text  books  of  their  Constitution,  as  con 
tained  in  his  complete  works,  it  will  have 
answered  a  sufficiently  high  and  noble  purpose 
— to  obviate  the  necessity  of  any  apology  for 
its  publication. 

J.  R. 
ApH,  1839. 


CONTENTS. 


l    Critical  Essay, 1 

The  Progress  of  Civilization, 17 

International  Law, 19 

Liberality  of  the  Age, 20 

The  Policy  of  Peace, 21 

Defence  of  Principle, 22 

Spirit  of  Liberty, 24 

The  Struggle  of  Liberty, 26 

Massachusetts, 28 

Character  of  Friends, 29 

Religious  Feeling, 30 

The  South, 31 

The  Poor  and  the  Rich, 33 

Good  and  Bad  Intentions, 34 

American  Citizenship, 36 

Exclusive  Metalic  Currency, 38 

Union, 38 

The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 40 

Credit, 40 

Banks, 41 

The  Sub-Treasury, 42 

Executive  Power, 43 

Plymouth  Rock, 45 

New  England 47 

Association, 48 

Marathon, 50 

Europe, 51 


12  CONTENTS. 

Bunker  Hill, 51 

The  Survivors  of  Bunker  Hill, 54 

General  Warren, 56 

The  Heroes  of  the  Revolution, 57 

The  Feeling  of  the  Pilgrims, (53 

Love  of  Religious  Liberty, 64 

The  Pilgrims  in  England, 66 

Military  Fame, 67 

The  Influence  of  Mind, 68 

The  African  Slave  Trade, 68 

Knowledge, 72 

Revolution, 73 

Adams  and  Jefferson, 73 

True  Oratory, 76 

Jefferson, 77 

The  Illustrious  Dead, 78 

Ancestry, 79 

Ancient  Colonization, 81 

Principles  of  Government, 89 

Love  of  Country, 93 

Eloquence  of  Adams. 95 

Assumed  Literary  Character, 102 

Adams, 104 

The  Duty  of  Citizens, 105 

Situation  of  America, 107 

Importance  of  Justice, 108 

External  Nature, 110 

Mathematical  Science, 110 

Character  of  a  Murderer, 112 

Description  n   a  Murder, 113 

Conscience, 114 

Splendid  Vices, 116 

Duty, 117 


CONTENTS.  13 

The  Judicial  Office, 118 

Importance  of  Character, 119 

John  Jay, 123 

Alexander  Hamilton, 125 

Washington, 130 

Government  of  Washington, 134 

The  Struggle  of  Popular  Power, 137 

Origin  of  our  Constitution, 139 

Greece, 150 

The  Protest, 152 

John  Adams, 154 

The  South, 156 

Government, 164 

The  Country, 165 

Love  of  Liberty, 167 

Moral  Example, 167 

Progress  of  Freedom, 169 

Party  Feelings, 171 

Union  in  Massachusetts, 172 

The  Present  and  the  Future, 173 

Duty  of  Representatives, 175 

Duty  of  the  Senate, 176 

City  of  New  York, 178 

Madison, 180 

Persecution  of  the  Pilgrim's, 181 

New  England, 185 

The   Greeks, 0 189 

Imprisonment  for  Debt, 192 

Importance  of  the  Union, 194 


A    \]fj]   ,      •;j/"JV  r, 

CRITICAL  ESSAY 

ON 

THE    GENIUS   AND    WRITINGS 

OF  THE  HONORABLE 

DANIEL  WEBSTER. 


IN  offering  a  few  remarks  (as  introductory 
to  the  following  work)  on  the  genius  and  wri 
tings  of  Mr.  Webster,  we  must  observe  that 
the  immediate  value  of  those  productions  con 
sists  in  their  development  of  admitted  and  eter 
nal  principles.  I  apprehend  we  shall  find  that 
Mr.  Webster  does  not  strive  to  introduce  new 
doctrines,  so  much  as  to  illustrate  old  and 
stable  truths,  so  that  we  may  almost  believe, 
that  the  combination  of  beauty  in  which  he 
clothes  them,  and  the  vigorous  power  with 
which  he  enforces  and  sustains  them,  produces 
in  the  mind  a  sensation  fully  equal  arid  plea 
surable  to  that  excited  by  novelty.  Whatever 
improvements  may  have  been  made  in  the 
1 


social  and  political  system^  by  the  influence  of 
increased  intelligence  and  the  progression  of 
mankind,  still  both  systems  are  founded  on 
natural  and  admitted  grounds,  and  the  princi 
ples  of  right  and  wrong  are  immutable  and 
eternal.  Were  the  following  beauties  depend 
ent  solely  on  their  brilliancy  of  language,  and 
the  power  of  imagination  displayed,  they  might 
form  a  structure,  the  pride  and  glory  of  the 
age ;  but  it  is  the  combination  of  these  qualities, 
in  their  perfection,  with  the  philosophical  and 
instructive  views  developed,  that  exhibits  the 
depth  of  thought  and  grandeur  of  mind  which 
must  command  the  praise  and  admiration  of 
all  ages  yet  to  come.  To  pursue  the  meta 
phor.  The  writings  and  productions  of  Web 
ster  appear  to  us  to  resemble  a  massive  struc 
ture,  calculated,  by  the  strength  of  its  materials, 
to  resist  the  winter  blast  or  the  howling  storm ; 
and  although  years  may  pass  over,  leaving  the 
moss  on  its  battlements,  and  the  stamp  of  time 
upon  its  walls,  it  still  exists.  There  are  asso 
ciations  too  grand  and  mighty  connected  with 
its  existence,  to  allow  future  generations  to 
leave  it  to  ruin.  They  derive  their  power  of 


stability  from  the  very  principles  which  they 
endeavor  to  enforce.  The  following  remarks 
must  be  understood  to  be  made  without  refer 
ence  to  political  party,  although  it  is  difficult 
to  regard  Mr.  Webster  in  an  isolated  position. 
His  noblest  efforts  are  connected  with  the  con 
stitution.  They  are  the  props  which  have 
sustained  it  in  the  fierce  struggle  of  political 
madness  and  selfish  strife;  and  if  future  ages 
should  be  destined  to  behold  its  ruin  and  fall, 
we  prophecy  that  its  strongest  support  will  be 
found  in  that  elevated  and  devoted  spirit  which 
the  efforts  of  Mr.  Webster  will  have  inspired 
in  the  people.  A  spirit,  which  in  its  purity 
and  patriotism  will  lend  energy  and  dignity 
in  every  situation  of  doubt  and  difficulty, 
which  will  mingle  with  feeling  the  force  of 
principle,  and  triumphing  over  even  the  pow 
er  of  selfishness,  prompt  a  love  of  the  truly 
virtuous  and  noble  in  action.  It  will  be  ob 
served,  that  one  of  the  chief  claims  to  distinc 
tion  which  these  efforts  advance,  is  founded  on 
their  connexion  and  completeness.  They  re 
semble  a  linked  chain.  The  last  link  must  be 
the  boundary  of  vision,  or  the  sight  becomes 


confused  if  we  attempt  to  break  off  at  any  in 
termediate  part.  This,  perhaps,  is  the  perfec 
tion  of  argument  and  public  speaking,  —  to 
connect  the  whole  bearings  of  a  subject,  and 
to  place  them  in  that  train  which  enables  the 
mind  to  glide  almost  imperceptibly  from  step 
to  step,  till  the  conclusion  bursts  upon  it  in 
irresistible  truth. 

This  is  one  of  the  causes  which  have  ren 
dered  the  task  of  selecting  the  following  spe 
cimens  one  of  considerable  difficulty.  There 
is  a  completeness  in  the  productions  of  Mr. 
Webster,  which  renders  it  dangerous  to  with 
draw  one  part,  since  the  grandeur  and  beauty 
of  the  whole  consists  in  the  perfect  adaptation 
of  all  its  parts.  Idea  follows  idea  and  argument 
succeeds  to  argument,  each  depending  on  the 
other,  and  conducting  to  one  end.  There  is 
an  irresistible  spell,  which  urges  the  reader 
or  hearer  onward  ;  he  exclaims  with  William 
Tell  — 

"  Since  I  have  tasted, 
I  will  e'en  feed  on." 

And  this  power  of  concentrating  ideas,  of 
placing  them  to  the  best  advantage,  not  only 


in  the  beauty  of  the  materials  but  in  the  gran 
deur  of  the  workmanship,  is  peculiarly  his  own. 
Let  us  select  a  man  unacquainted  with  the 
craft  of  a  goldsmith ;  he  Hiay  have  his  house 
crowded  with  the  material,  but  it  can  be  of 
little  use  to  him  until  he  has  become  accom 
plished  in  the  art  of  working  that  gold  into 
forms  of  varied  beauty  and  taste.  So  it  is  a 
great  peculiarity  of  Mr.  Webster,  that  while  he 
is  working  with  the  same  materials  as  others, 
yet  the  facility  with  which  he  moulds  them 
to  his  purposes,  and  stamps  upon  them  the 
images  of  his  own  great  mind,  giving  the  un 
formed  marble  shape  and  expression,  places 
him  in  a  position  incomparably  distant  from 
every  competitor.  Nor  is  it  known  how  far 
the  elevated  moral  stand  which  Webster  takes, 
operates  upon  this  power ;  he  derives  dignity 
from  the  greatness  of  his  subject^-  he  becomes 
elevated  in  proportion  to  its  grandeur;  like 
the  eagle,  whose  eye,  it  is  said,  is  formed  to 
command  a  wider  field  of  view  in  proportion 
to  its  height.  The  man  who  occupies  the 
highest  situation,  will  feel  the  sunbeams  more 
warm,  and  behold  the  sun  more  brightly.  And 
1* 


it  is  this  prominence,  this  high  station,  which 
Webster  assumes  above  the  jealousies  of  party 
strife,  standing  on  the  rock  of  imperishable 
principle,  which  leads  him,  as  a  natural  con 
sequence  of  his  situation,  to  command  that  ex 
tensive  view  of  men  and  things  which  is  his 
peculiar  characteristic.  It  is  from  the  exercise 
of  sound  principle,  and  a  healthful  tone  of 
feeling,  that  man  borrows  energy  and  great 
ness,  for  occasions  of  doubt  and  difficulty  ;  that 
attachment  to  principle  operates  on  the  mind 
as  the  free  air  of  heaven  on  the  body  ;  it  in 
vigorates  and  strengthens,  exhilarates  and  in 
fluences,  till  it  becomes  a  necessary  element  of 
its  existence.  If  we  regard  the  peculiarities  of 
Mr.  Webster  as  a  statesman,  we  shall  find  him 
distinguished  by  a  far-sightedness,  a  power  of 
mental  vision,  which  scans,  like  an  experienced 
mariner,  the  skirts  of  the  horizon,  taking  in 
every  object  the  most  minute  in  the  circle  of 
events  ;  .there  is  a  combination  of  the  past,  the 
present,  and  the  future; — the  experience  of 
the  past,  the  enlightened  action  of  the  present, 
and  the  effect  in  the  future,  are  drawn  together 
to  form  a  connected  whole,  in  which  every 


atom  depends  more  or  less  on  its  neighbor  for 
support.  The  common  grade  of  politicians 
see  little  beyond  present  influences  ;  their  po 
litical  actions  resemble  their  private  feelings, 
selfish  ;  but  the  true  devotion  of  the  patriot's 
heart  leads  him  to  sacrifice  himself,  if  it  be 
necessary,  for  the  good  of  others ;  and  the  en 
lightened  statesman  looks  not  only  to  the  ef 
fects  of  the  present,  but  the  influences  of  the 
future.  And  it  is,  we  contend,  in  this  point  of 
view  that  Mr.  Webster  stands  alone;  it  is  in 
this  power  to  see  the  effects  of  causes,  and  the 
will  to  render  them  most  universally  useful, 
combining  the  elements  of  moral  greatness  with 
the  power  of  intellectual  strength,  rearing  a 
temple,  not  for  beauty,  but  for  use. 

Carrying  out  our  remarks  on  Mr.  Webster 
as  a  statesman,  we  shall  find  that  he  is  distin 
guished  by  extensive  knowledge  of  the  history 
and  governments  of  other  nations.  It  is  here 
that  the  accomplished  statesman  rises  superior 
to  all  other  men  —  in  the  knowledge  of  those 
weak  points  in  other  nations  and  other  govern 
ments,  which  warn  him  from  the  same  quick 
sands,  which  lead  him  to  know  evil  by  the  ex- 


8 

perience  of  others,  and  lend  him  the  power  to 
direct  his  steps  in  the  pathways  of  truth.  With 
a  quickness  of  perception  unequalled,  he  is 
enabled  to  lend  that  knowledge  to  the  con 
sideration  of  present  difficulties  ;  and  therefore 
his  views  of  political  science  are  more  exten 
sive,  more  general,  and  more  correct,  than  any 
other  living  man. 

But  not  as  a  statesman  alone  must  we  re 
gard  Mr.  Webster;  he  lays  distinguished  and 
undisputed  claims  to  the  title  of  an  accom 
plished  Orator.  Now,  were  we  to  inquire  in 
what  true  Oratory  consists,  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  the  correct  answer  would  be,  That 
power  by  which  we  enlist  the  sympathies  and 
reason  of  our  audience,  in  that  equal  degree 
which  allows  neither  to  predominate  over  the 
other.  This  power  is  exclusively  Mr.  Web 
ster's  own.  We  can  safely  hazard  the  assertion, 
that  no  man  recorded  amongst  the  living  or 
the  dead  exhibits  it  more  fully  than  does  Mr. 
Webster.  If  the  excitement  of  passion  should 
bias  for  a  moment,  its  influence  is  as  short-lived 
as  that  excitement;  if  the  mind  is  left  alone  to 
reason,  it  becomes  wearied,  and  forsakes  its 


occupation;  but  let  them  both  be  combined, 
the  reason  awakened,  the  sympathies  excited, 
and  the  result  will  necessarily  be  useful  and 
permanent.  We  have  before  made  some  few 
remarks  on  the  power  which  he  possesses  of 
combining  all  the  parts  of  a  subject;  if  this  is 
apparent  in  him  as  a  Statesman,  it  is  equally 
so  as  an  Orator;  perhaps  one  of  the  finest 
specimens  of  this  power  may  be  traced  in  his 
address  at  Plymouth.  The  picture  is  admira 
bly  complete.  There  is  scarcely  a  probable 
event  which  escaped  his  attention;  all  the  lo 
cal  associations,  all  the  patient  fortitude,  all 
the  inspiring  confidence  of  the  Pilgrims,  are 
described  with  the  genius  of  a  poet  and  the 
skill  of  a  painter.  The  whole  is  before  the 
mind  —  we  seem,  even  in  reading  this  great 
effort,  to  be  carried  back  to  the  scenes  and 
period  of  its  action,  and  become  fascinated 
with  the  view  as  the  mighty  panorama  rolls 
around  us. 

There  are  circumstances,  in  every  man's 
life,  which  call  for  the  exercise  of  severity. 
And  although  sarcasm  is  not  a  natural  element 
of  Webster's  mind,  because  it  is  a  sentiment 


10 

which  his  high  moral  feeling  cannot  indulge, 
yet  when  necessity  calls  for  the  operation,  the 
materials  are  always  at  his  command.  Pope 

says, 

"  Satire  should,  like  a  polished  razor  keen, 
Wound  with  a  touch  that's  scarcely  felt  or  seen." 

And  the  power  of  Mr.  Webster's  satire  con 
sists  in  displaying  the  weakness  of  its  object  — 
he  draws  the  elements  of  contempt  from  the 
thing  itself.  We  do  not  behold  the  power  of 
the  master  inflicting  the  blow,  but  we  wonder 
at  the  weakness  of  the  object,  which  flies  into 
a  thousand  shattered  particles  beneath  its 
force. 

As  a  writer  and  speaker  of  the  English 
language,  Mr.  Webster  must  be  admitted  to  be 
the  first.  And  this  power  of  using  the  English 
language  is  the  result,  to  a  certain  extent,  of 
the  conformation  of  his  mind.  It  is  that  keen- 
sighted  vision  which  detects  discrepancy  in 
facts  and  statements,  that  leads  to  the  choice 
of  the  most  perfect  mode  of  adapting  his  sen 
tences  to  the  expression  of  the  meaning  which 
he  wishes  to  convey.  He  never  uses  a  sen 
tence  which  can  admit  of  a  doubtful  meaning ; 


11 

all  is  clear,  distinct,  intelligible.  The  figures 
which  tend  to  explain  his  sentiments  are  always 
fitly  chosen  in  accordance  with  those  senti 
ments.  In  the  power  of  imagination  and  the 
brilliancy  of  metaphor,  abundant  proofs  are 
exhibited  of  Mr.  Webster's  pre-eminent  ac 
complishment.  There  is  a  judgment,  too,  ex 
hibited  in  the  choice  of  those  metaphors,  which 
is  extremely  rare.  We  have  offered  these  ob 
servations  with  a  view  of  pointing  out  the  dis 
tinguished  characteristics  of  this  great  man. 
They  stand  out  like  the  prominent  figures  of 
a  picture.  They  are  individual,  distinct,  origi 
nal.  They  are  suited  to  the  man,  and  the 
man  to  them. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  efforts  of 
Mr.  Webster  are  calculated  to  endure,  incor 
porated  with  the  history  of  the  Constitution. 
Every  succeeding  effort  adds  to  his  fame  and 
the  value  of  his  works.  We  have  read  that  the 
monks  of  La  Trappe  are  accustomed  to  dig  a 
certain  portion  of  their  graves  every  day.  We 
may  reverse  the  picture,  and  say  that  Mr. 
Webster  adds  every  day  some  new  material 
to  the  monument  of  his  greatness  and  his  fame. 


12 

That  monument  is  to  be  found  in  his  works, 
in  their  enduring  usefulness,  and  their  exten 
sive  application  ;  and  here  it  must  stand  alone 
• — in  solitary  grandeur,  "  towering  in  the  van 
of  all  this  congregated  world  ;"  and  if  slander 
should  attempt  to  malign,  or  party  bitterness 
condemn  — should  the  birds  of  prey  be  let  loose 
to  destroy  those  trophies,  they  can  but  wound 
their  blunted  beaks  against  its  firm  and  impe 
rishable  structure. 

A  mistaken  view  has  obtained  with  regard 
to  the  claims  of  a  nation  for  its  great  men. 
We  think,  however,  that  men  of  genius  are  the 
property  of  the  world  ;  and  if  other  nations 
cannot  claim  them  as  their  sons,  they  can  at 
least  benefit  by  their  talents.  We  do  not  look 
at  Mr.  Webster,  alone,  with  regard  to  his  ac 
quaintance  with  and  defence  of  the  American 
Constitution.  We  believe  that  his  general 
views  will  do  much  to  extend  a  knowledge  of 
men  and  things  in  the  world  —  to  purify  the 
feelings  and  morality  of  the  age  —  to  dignify 
the  nature  of  man,  and  to  disseminate  a  cor 
rect  and  philosophical  spirit  among  all  classes 
of  society. 


13 

In  England,  the  writings  of  Mr.  Webster 
are  calculated  to  do  a  vast  amount  of  good, 
by  placing  republican  institutions  on  their 
plain  and  undeniable  principles  —  opposed  to 
the  headlong  passions  of  a  misguided  mob ;  with 
deadly  hostility  to  every  form  of  tyranny,  the 
true  history  of  popular  power,  its  fixed  and 
eternal  principles,  have  been  in  these  efforts 
fairly  placed  before  the  world.  And  when  the 
Genius  of  American  liberty  shall  weep  over 
the  grave  of  Webster,  it  will  be  in  the  bitter 
ness  of  a  widowhood,  made  desolate  by  the 
loss  of  her  ablest  and  firmest  supporter.  But 
in  his  works,  and  in  their  influence  upon  so 
ciety,  he  will  have  left  a  legacy  for  which 
America  and  the  world  will  be  his  everlasting 
debtors. 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  CIVILIZATION. 

THE  time  has  been,  indeed,  when  fleets,  and 
armies,  and  subsidies,  were  the  principal  reli 
ances  even  in  the  best  cause.  But,  happily  for 
mankind,  there  has  come  a  great  change  in  this 
respect.  Moral  causes  come  into  consideration, 
in  proportion  as  the  progress  of  knowledge  is 
advanced;  and  the  public  opinion  of  the  civilized 
world  is  rapidly  gaining  an  ascendancy  over 
mere  brutal  force.  It  is  already  able  to  oppose 
the  most  formidable  obstruction  to  the  progress 
of  injustice  and  oppression  ;  and  as  it  grows 
more  intelligent  and  more  intense,  it  will  be 
more  and  more  formidable.  It  may  be  silenced 
by  military  power,  but  it  cannot  be  conquered. 
It  is  elastic,  irrepressible,  and  invulnerable  to 
the  weapons  of  ordinary  warfare.  It  is  that 
impassable,  unextinguishable  enemy  of  mere 
violence  and  arbitrary  rule,  which,  like  Milton's 
angels, 

"  Vital  in  every  part, 
Cannot,  but  by  annihilating,  die." 

Until  this  be  propitiated  and  satisfied,  it  is 
vain  for  power  to  talk  either  of  triumphs  or  of 
2* 


18  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

repose.  No  matter  what  fields  are  desolated, 
what  fortresses  surrendered,  what  armies  sub 
dued,  or  what  provinces  overrun.  In  the  his 
tory  of  the  year  that  has  passed  by  us,  and  in 
the  instance  of  unhappy  Spain,  we  have  seen 
the  vanity  of  all  triumphs  in  a  cause  which  vio 
lates  the  general  sense  of  justice  of  the  civilized 
world.  It  is  nothing  that  the  troops  of  France 
have  passed  from  the  Pyrenees  to  Cadiz  ;  it  is 
nothing  that  an  unhappy  and  prostrate  nation 
has  fallen  before  them  ;  it  is  nothing  that  arrests, 
and  confiscation,  and  execution,  sweep  away  the 
little  remnant  of  national  resistance.  There  is 
an  enemy  that  still  exists  to  check  the  glory  of 
these  triumphs.  It  follows  the  conqueror  back 
to  the  very  scene  of  his  ovations;  it  calls  upon 
him  to  take  notice  that  Europe,  though  silent,  is 
yet  indignant;  it  show's  him  that  the  sceptre  of 
his  victory  is  a  barren  sceptre  —  that  it  shall 
confer  neither  joy  nor  honor,  but  shall  moulder 
to  dry  ashes  in  his  grasp.  In  the  midst  of  his 
exultation  it  pierces  his  ear  with  the  cry  of  in 
jured  justice;  it  denounces  against  him  the  in 
dignation  of  an  enlightened  and  civilized  age; 
it  turns  to  bitterness  the  cup  of  his  rejoicing,  and 
wounds  him  with  the  sting  which  belongs  to  the 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  19 

consciousness  of  having  outraged  the  opinion  of 
mankind. 

INTERNATIONAL  LAW. 

This  asserted  right  of  forcible  intervention  in 
the  affairs  of  other  nations  is  in  open  violation 
of  the  public  law  of  the  world.  Is  the  whole 
world  expected  to  acquiesce  in  the  principles 
which  entirely  subvert  the  independence  of  na 
tions]  On  the  basis  of  this  independence  has 
been  reared  the  beautiful  fabric  of  international 
law.  On  the  principle  of  this  independence, 
Europe  has  seen  a  family  of  nations  flourishing 
within  its  limits;  the  small  among  the  large, 
protected  not  always  by  power,  but  by  a  princi 
ple  above  power — by  a  sense  of  propriety  and 
justice.  On  this  principle  the  great  common 
wealth  of  civilized  states  has  been  hitherto  up 
held.  There  have  been  occasional  departures 
or  violations,  and  always  disastrous,  as  in  the 
case  of  Poland;  but  in  general  the  harmony  of 
the  system  has  been  wonderfully  preserved.  In 
the  production  and  preservation  of  this  sense  of 
justice,  this  predominating  principle,  the  Chris 
tian  Religion  has  acted  a  main  part.  Chris 
tianity  and  civilization  have  labored  together:  it 


20  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

seems,  indeed,  to  be  a  law  of  our  human  con 
dition,  that  they  can  live  and  flourish  only  to 
gether.  From  their  blended  influence  has  arisen 
that  delightful  spectacle  of  the  prevalence  of 
reason  and  principle  over  power  and  interest, 
so  well  described  by  one  who  was  an  honor  to 
the  age: 

"  And  sovereign  Law  —  the  world's  collected  will, 

O'er  thrones  and  globes  elate, 
Sits  empress  —  crowning  good  —  repressing  ill ; 

Smit  by  her  sacred  frown, 
The  fiend  discretion,  like  a  vapor  sinks, 

And  e'en  the  all-dazzling  crown, 
Hides  his  faint  rays,  and  at  her  bidding  shrinks." 

LIBERALITY  OF  THE  AGE. 

I  take  it  for  granted  that  the  policy  of  this 
country,  springing  from  the  nature  of  our  go 
vernment  and  the  spirit  of  all  our  institutions,  is, 
so  far  as  it  respects  the  interesting  questions 
which  agitate  the  present  age,  on  the  side  of 
liberal  and  enlightened  sentiments.  The  age  is 
extraordinary;  the  spirit  that  actuates  it  is  pe 
culiar  and  marked ;  and  our  own  relation  to  the 
times  we  live  in,  and  to  the  questions  which  in 
terest  them,  is  equally  marked  and  peculiar. 
We  are  placed  by  our  good  fortune,  and  the  wis 
dom  and  valor  of  our  ancestors,  in  a  condition  in 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  21 

which  we  can  act  no  obscure  part.  Be  it  for 
honor,  or  be  it  for  dishonor,  whatever  we  do  is 
not  likely  to  escape  the  observation  of  the  world- 
As  one  of  the  free  states  among  the  nations,  as  a 
great  and  rapidly  rising  Republic,  it  would  be 
possible  for  us,  if  we  were  so  disposed,  to 
prevent  our  principles,  our  sentiments,  and  our 
example,  from  producing  some  effect  upon  the 
opinions  and  hopes  of  society  throughout  the 
civilized  world.  It  rests,  probably,  with  our 
selves  to  determine  whetherthe  influence  of  these 
shall  be  salutary  or  pernicious. 

THE    POLICY    OF    PEACE. 

It  is  certainly  true  that  the  just  policy  of  this 
country  is,  in  the  first  place,  a  peaceful  policy. 
No  nation  never  had  less  to  expect  from  a  forci 
ble  aggrandizement.  The  mighty  agents  which 
are  working  out  our  greatness,  are  time,  indus 
try,  and  the  arts.  Our  augmentation  is  by  growth, 
not  by  acquisition  ;  by  internal  development,  not 
by  external  accession.  No  schemes  can  be  sug 
gested  to  us  so  magnificent  as  the  prospects 
which  a  sober  contemplation  of  our  own  condi 
tion,  unaided  by  projects,  uninfluenced  by  ambi 
tion,  fairly  spreads  before  us.  A  country  of  such 
vast  extent,  with  such  varieties  of  soil  and  cli- ' 


22  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

mate  ;  with  so  much  public  spirit  and  private 
enterprise ;  with  a  population  increasing  so 
much  beyond  former  examples  ;  with  capacities 
of  improvement  not  only  unapplied  or  unexhaust 
ed,  but  even  in  a  great  measure  as  yet  unexplo 
red  ;  so  free  in  its  institutions,  so  mild  in  its  laws, 
so  secure  in  the  title  it  confers  on  every  man  to 
his  own  acquisitions,  needs  nothing  but  time  and 
peace  to  carry  it  forward  to  almost  any  point  of 
advancement. 

DEFENCE    OF    PRINCIPLE. 

The  senate  regarded  this  interposition  as  an 
encroachment  by  the  executive  on  other  branch 
es  of  government ;  as  an  interference  with  the 
legislative  disposition  of  the  public  treasure.  It 
was  strongly  and  forcibly  urged  by  the  honor 
able  member  from  South  Carolina,  that  the  true 
and  only  mode  of  preserving  any  balance  of 
power,  in  mixed  governments,  is  to  keep  an 
exact  balance.  This  is  very  true  ;  and  to  this 
end,  encroachment  must  be  resisted  at  the  first 
step.  The  question  is,  therefore,  whether,  upon 
the  true  principles  of  the  constitution,  this  ex 
ercise  of  power  by  the  President  can  be  justi 
fied.  Whether  the  consequences  be  prejudicial 
or  not,  if  there  be  an  illegal  exercise  of  power, 


BEAUTIES  OP  WEBSTER.  23 

it  is  to  be  resisted  in  the  proper  manner ;  even 
if  no  harm  or  inconvenience  result  from  trans 
gressing  the  boundary,  the  intrusion  is  not  to  be 
suffered  to  pass  unnoticed.  Every  encroach 
ment,  great  or  small,  is  important  enough  to 
awaken  the  attention  of  those  who  are  entrusted 
with  the  preservation  of  a  constitutional  govern 
ment.  We  are  not  to  wait  till  great  public  mis 
chiefs  come,  till  the  government  is  overthrown, 
or  liberty  itself  put  in  extreme  jeopardy.  We 
should  not  be  worthy  sons  of  our  fathers  were 
we  so  to  regard  great  questions  affecting  the 
general  freedom.  Those  fathers  accomplished 
the  revolution  on  a  strict  question  of  principle. 
The  parliament  of  Great  Britain  asserted  aright 
to  tax  the  colonies  in  all  cases  whatsoever  ;  and 
it  was  precisely  on  this  question  that  they  made 
the  revolution  turn.  The  amount  of  taxation 
was  trifling  ;  but  the  claim  itself  was  inconsist 
ent  with  liberty ;  and  that  was,  in  their  eyes, 
enough.  It  was  against  the  recital  of  an  act  of 
parliament,  rather  than  against  any  suffering 
under  the  enactments,  that  they  took  up  arms. 
They  went  to  war  against  a  preamble.  They 
fought  seven  years  against  a  declaration.  They 
poured  out  their  treasures  and  their  blood,  like 
water,  in  a  contest,  in  opposition  to  an  assertion, 


24  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

which  those  less  sagacious,  and  not  so  well  school 
ed  in  the  principles  of  civil  liberty,  would  have 
regarded  as  barren  phraseology  or  mere  parade 
of  words.  They  saw,  in  the  claim  of  the  British 
Parliament,  a  seminal  principle  of  mischief,  the 
germ  of  unjust  power ;  they  detected  it,  dragged 
it  forth  from  underneath  its  plausible  disguises, 
struck  at  it ;  nor  did  it  elude  their  steady  eye  or 
their  well-directed  blow  till  they  had  extirpated 
and  destroyed  it  to  the  smallest  fibre.  On  this 
question  of  principle,  while  actual  suffering  was 
yet  afar  off,  they  raised  their  flag  against  a  pow 
er  to  which,  for  purposes  of  foreign  conquest 
and  subjugation,  Rome,  in  the  height  of  her 
glory,  is  not  to  be  compared ;  a  power  which 
has  dotted  over  the  surface  of  the  whole  globe 
with  her  possessions  and  military  posts,  whose 
morning  drum-beat,  following  the  sun  and  keep 
ing  company  with  the  hours,  circles  the  earth 
daily  with  one  continuous  and  unbroken  strain 
of  the  martial  airs  of  England. 

SPIRIT  OF    LIBERTY. 

The  first  object  of  a  free  people  is,  the  preser 
vation  of  their  liberty ;  and  liberty  is  only  to  be 
preserved  by  maintaining  constitutional  res 
traints  and  just  divisions  of  political  power. 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  25 

Nothing  is  more  deceptive  or  more  dangerous 
than  the  pretence  of  a  desire  to  simplify  govern 
ment.  The  simplest  governments  are  despot 
isms  ;  the  next  simplest,  limited  monarchies  ;  but 
all  republics,  all  governments  of  law,  must  im 
pose  numerous  limitations  and  qualifications  of 
authority,  and  give  many  positive  and  many  qua 
lified  rights.  In  other  words,  they  must  be  sub 
ject  to  rule  and  regulation.  This  is  the  very 
essence  of  free  political  institutions.  The  spirit 
of  liberty  is  indeed  a  bold  and  fearless  spirit,  but 
it  is  also  a  sharp-sighted  spirit ;  it  is  a  cautious, 
sagacious,  discriminating,  far-seeingintelligence ; 
it  is  jealous  of  encroachment,  jealous  of  power, 
jealous  of  man.  It  demands  checks,  it  seeks  for 
guards,  it  insists  on  securities  ;  it  entrenches  it 
self  behind  strong  defences,  and  fortifies  with  all 
possible  care  against  the  assaults  of  ambition  and 
passion.  It  does  not  trust  the  amiable  weak 
nesses  of  human  nature,  and  therefore  it  will  not 
permit  power  to  overstep  its  prescribed  limits, 
though  benevolence,  good  intent,  and  patriotic 
purpose,  come  along  with  it.  Neither  does  it 
satisfy  itself  with  flashy  and  temporary  resistance 
to  illegal  authority.  Far  otherwise,  it  seeks  for 
duration  and  permanence.  It  looks  before  and 
after ;  and,  building  on  the  experience  of  ages 
3 


26  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

which  are  past,  it  labors  diligently  for  the  bene 
fit  of  ages  to  come.  This  is  the  nature  of  con 
stitutional  liberty,  and  this  is  our  liberty  if  we  will 
rightly  understand  and  preserve  it.  Every  free 
government  is  necessarily  complicated,  because 
all  such  governments  establish  restraints,  as  well 
on  the  power  of  government  itself  as  on  that  of 
individuals.  If  we  will  abolish  the  distinction  of 
branches,  and  have  but  one  branch ;  if  we  will 
abolish  jury  trials,  and  leave  all  to  the  judge  ;  if 
we  will  then  ordain  that  the  legislator  shall  him 
self  be  the  judge  ;  and  if  we  will  place  the  exe 
cutive  power  in  the  same  hands,  we  may  readily 
simplify  government  —  we  may  easily  bring  it 
to  the  simplest  of  all  possible  forms  —  a  pure 
despotism.  But  a  separation  of  departments,  so 
far  as  practicable,  and  the  preservation  of  clear 
lines  of  division  between  them,  is  the  fundamen 
tal  idea  in  the  creation  of  all  our  constitutions  ; 
and  doubtless  the  continuance  of  regulated  liber 
ty  depends  on  maintaining  these  boundaries. 

THE  STRUGGLE    OF  LIBERTY. 

The  contest  for  ages  has  been  to  rescue  liber 
ty  from  the  grasp  of  executive  power.  Whoever 
has  engaged  in  her  sacred  cause,  from  the  days 
of  the  downfall  of  those  great  aristocracies,  which 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  27 

had  stood  between  the  king  and  the  people,  to 
the  time  of  our  own  independence,  has  struggled 
for  the  accomplishment  of  that  single  object.  On 
the  long  list  of  champions   of  human  freedom, 
there  is  not  one  name  damned  by  the  reproach 
of  advocating  the  extension  of  executive  autho 
rity  ;  on  the   contrary,  the  uniform  and  steady 
purpose  of  all  such  champions  has  been,  to  limit 
and  restrain  it.   To  this  end,  the  spirit  of  liberty, 
growing  more  and  more  enlightened,  and  more 
and  more  vigorous  from  age  to  age,  has  been 
battering  for  centuries  against  the  solid  buttments 
of  the  feudal  system.    To  this  end,  all  that  could 
be  gained  from  the  imprudence,  snatched  from 
the  weakness,  or  wrung  from  the  necessities  of 
crowned  heads,  has  been  carefully  gathered  up, 
secured,  and  hoarded,  as  the  rich  treasures,  the 
very  jewels  of  liberty.  To  this  end,  popular  and 
representative    right  has  kept   up   its    warfara 
against  prerogative  with  various  success  ;  some 
times  writing  the  history  of  a  whole  age  in  blood, 
sometimes  witnessing  the  martyrdoms   of  Syd- 
neys  and  Russels  ;  often  baffled  and  repulsed^ 
but  still  gaining,  on  the  whole,  and  holding  what 
it  gained  with  a  grasp  which  nothing  but  the  com 
plete  extinction  of  its  own  being  could  compel  it 
to  relinquish.    At  length,  the  great  conquest  over 


28  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

executive  power  in  the  leading  western  states  of 
Europe,  has  been  accomplished.  The  feudal 
system,  like  other  stupendous  fabrics  of  past 
ages,  is  known  only  by  the  rubhish  it  has  left  be 
hind  it.  Crowned  heads  have  been  compelled 
to  submit  to  the  restraints  of  law  ;  and  the  PEO 
PLE,  with  that  intelligence  and  that  spirit  which 
make  their  voice  resistless,  have  been  able  to 
say  to  prerogative,  "  thus  far  shalt  thou  come, 
and  no  farther."  I  need  hardly  say,  that  into  the 
full  enjoyment  of  all  which  Europe  has  reached 
only  through  such  slow  and  painful  steps,  we 
sprang  at  once,  by  the  declaration  of  indepen 
dence,  and  by  the  establishment  of  free  represen 
tative  government  ;  governments,  borrowing 
more  or  less  from  the  models  of  other  free 
states,  but  strengthed,  secured,  improved  in  their 
symmetry,  and  deepened  in  their  foundation,  by 
those  great  men  of  our  own  country,  whose 
names  will  be  as  familiar  to  future  times  as  if 
they  were  written  on  the  arch  of  the  sky. 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

I  shall  enter  on  no  encomium  of  Massachu 
setts  —  she  needs  none.  There  she  is  —  behold 
her,  and  judge  for  yourselves.  There  is  her 
history.  The  world  has  it  by  heart.  The  past 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  29 

at  least  is  secure.  There  is  Boston,  and  Con 
cord,  and  Lexington,  and  Bunker  Hill ;  and 
there  they  will  remain  for  ever.  The  bones  of 
her  sons,  fallen  in  the  great  struggle  for  inde 
pendence,  now  lie  mingled  with  the  soil  of  every 
State  from  New-England  to  Georgia ;  and  there 
they  will  lie  for  ever.  And,  sir,  where  Ameri 
can  Liberty  raised  its  first  voice,  and  where  its 
youth  was  nurtured  and  sustained,  there  it  still 
lives  in  the  strength  of  its  manhood,  and  full  of 
its  original  spirit  If  discord  and  disunion  shall 
wound  it ;  if  party  strife  and  blind  ambition  shall 
hawk  at  and  tear  it ;  if  folly  and  madness,  if 
uneasiness  under  salutary  and  necessary  re 
straint,  shall  succeed  to  separate  it  from  that 
union  by  which  alone  its  existence  is  made  sure; 
in  the  end,  by  the  side  of  that  cradle  in  which  its 
infancy  was  rocked,  it  will  stretch  forth  its  arms 
with  whatever  vigor  it  may  still  retain  over  the 
friends  who  gather  round  it ;  and  it  will  fall  at 
last,  if  fall  it  must,  amidst  the  proudest  monu 
ments  of  its  own  glory,  and  on  the  very  spot  of 
its  origin. 

CHARACTER    OF    FKIENDS. 

When,  sir,  were  the  Society  of  Friends  found 
to  be  political  agitators,  ambitious  partisans,  or 
3* 


30  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

panic  makers  ]  When  have  they  disturbed  the 
community  with  false  cries  of  public  danger,  or 
joined  in  any  clamor  against  just,  and  wise,  and 
constitutional  government  ]  Sir,  if  there  be  any 
political  fault  fairly  imputable  to  the  Friends,  I 
think  it  is  rather,  if  they  will  allow  me  to  say  so'i 
that  they  are  a  little  too  indifferent  about  the  ex 
ercise  of  their  political  rights  ;  a  little  too  ready 
to  leave  all  matters  respecting  government  in  the 
hands  of  others.  Not  ambitious,  usually,  of  ho 
nor  or  office,  but  peaceable  and  industrious,  they 
desire  only  the  safety  of  liberty,  civil  and  reli 
gious,  the  security  of  property,  and  the  protec 
tion  of  honest  labor.  All  they  ask  of  government 
is,  that  it  be  wisely  and  safely  administered. 
They  are  not  desirous  to  interfere  in  its  adminis 
tration.  Yet,  sir,  a  crisis  can  move  them,  and 
they  think  a  crisis  now  exists.  They  bow  down 
to  nothing  human,  which  raises  its  head  higher 
than  the  constitution,  or  above  the  laws. 

RELIGIOUS    FEELING. 

On  the  general  question  of  Slavery,  a  great 
portion  of  the  community  is  already  strongly 
excited.  The  subject  has  not  only  attracted  at 
tention  as  a  question  of  politics,  but  it  has  struck 
a  far  deeper-toned  chord.  It  has  arrested  the 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  31 

religious  feeling  of  the  country;  it  has  taken 
strong  hold  on  the  consciences  of  men.  He  is 
a  rash  man  indeed,  and  little  conversant  with  hu 
man  nature,  and  especially  has  he  a  very  erro 
neous  estimate  of  the  character  of  the  people  of 
this  country,  who  supposes  that  a  feeling  of  this 
kind  is  to  be  trifled  with  or  despised.  It  will  as 
suredly  cause  itself  to  be  respected.  It  may  be 
reasoned  with,  it  may  be  made  willing,  I  believe 
it  is  entirely  willing,  to  fulfil  all  existing  engage 
ments  and  all  existing  duties,  to  uphold  and  de 
fend  the  constitution  as  it  is  established,  with 
whatever  regrets  about  some  provisions  which  it 
does  actually  contain.  But  to  coerce  it  into  si 
lence  —  to  endeavor  to  restrain  its  free  expres 
sion,  to  seek  to  compress  and  confine  it,  warm  as 
it  is,  and  more  heated  as  such  endeavors  would 
inevitably  render  it  —  should  all  this  be  attempt 
ed!  I  know  nothing,  even  in  the  Constitution 
or  in  the  Union  itself,  which  would  not  be  en 
dangered  by  the  explosion  which  might  follow. 

THE    SOUTH. 

Sir,  does  the  honorable  gentleman  suppose  it 
in  his  power  to  exhibit  a  Carolina  name  so  bright 
as  to  produce  envy  in  my  bosom]  No,  sir;  in 
creased  gratification  and  delight  rather.  Sir,  I 


32  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

thank  God  if  I  am  gifted  with  little  of  that  spirit 
which  is  said  to  be  able  to  raise  mortals  to  the 
skies ;  I  have  yet  none,  I  trust,  of  that  other  spirit, 
which  would  drag  angels  down.  When  1  shall 
be  found,  sir,  here  in  my  place  in  the  senate,  or 
elsewhere,  to  sneer  at  public  merit  because  it 
happened  to  spring  up  beyond  the  little  limits  of 
my  own  state  or  neighborhood;  when  I  refuse, 
for  any  such  cause  or  for  any  cause,  the  homage 
due  to  American  talent,  to  elevated  patriotism, 
to  sincere  devotion  to  liberty  and  the  country  ; 
or  if  I  see  an  uncommon  endowment  of  heaven  — 
if  I  see  extraordinary  capacity  and  virtue  in  any 
son  of  the  south  —  and  if,  moved  by  local  pre 
judice  or  gangrened  by  state  jealousy.  I  get  up 
here  to  abate  the  tithe  of  a  hair  from  his  just 
character  and  just  fame  ;  may  my  tongue  cleave 
to  the  roof  of  my  mouth !  Sir,  let  me  recur  to 
pleasing  recollections  —  let  me  indulge  in  re 
freshing  remembrance  of  the  past  —  let  me  re 
mind  you,  that  in  early  times  no  States  cherished 
greater  harmony,  both  of  principle  and  of  feeling, 
than  Massachusetts  and  South  Carolina.  Would 
to  God  that  harmony  might  again  return.  Shoul 
der  to  shoulder  they  went  through  the  revolu 
tion  ;  hand  in  hand  they  stood  round  the  admi 
nistration  of  Washington,  and  felt  his  own  great 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  33 

arm  lean  on  them  for  support.  Unkind  feeling, 
if  it  exist,  alienation  and  distrust,  are  the  growth 
unnatural  to  such  soils,  of  false  principles  since 
sown.  They  are  weeds,  the  seeds  of  which  that 
great  arm  never  scattered. 

THE  POOR  AND  THE  RICH. 

I  know  that  under  the  shade  of  the  roofs  of  the 
Capitol,  within  the  last  twenty-four  hours,  among 
men  sent  here  to  devise  means  for  the  public 
safety  and  the  public  good,  it  has  been  vaunted 
forth,  as  a  matter  of  boast  and  triumph,  that  one 
cause  existed,  powerful  enough  to  support  every 
thing,  and  to  defend  every  thing ;  and  that  was 
the  cause  of  the  Rich  against  the  Poor. 

Sir,  I  pronounce  the  author  of  such  sentiments 
to  be  guilty  of  attempting  a  detestable  fraud  on 
the  community  ;  a  double  fraud  ;  a  fraud  which 
is  to  cheat  men  out  of  their  property,  and  out  of 
the  earnings  of  their  labor,  by  first  cheating  them 
out  of  their  understandings. 

"  The  natural  hatred  of  the  poor  to  the  rich  !" 
Sir,  it  shall  not  be  till  the  last  moment  of  my  ex 
istence,  it  shall  be  only  when  I  am  drawn  to  the 
verge  of  oblivion,  when  I  shall  cease  to  have  res 
pect  or  affection  for  any  thing  on  earth,  that  I 
will  believe  the  people  of  the  United  States  ca- 


34  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

pable  of  being  effectually  deluded,  cajoled,  and 
driven  about  in  herds  by  such  abominable  hands 
as  these.  If  they  shall  sink  to  that  point  ;  if  they 
so  far  cease  to  be  men,  thinking  men,  intelligent 
men,  as  to  yield  to  such  pretences  and  such  cla 
mor,  they  will  be  slaves  already  —  slaves  to  their 
own  passions,  slaves  to  the  fraud  and  knavery  of 
pretended  friends.  They  will  deserve  to  be 
blotted  out  of  all  the  records  of  freedom;  they 
ought  not  to  dishonor  the  cause  of  self-govern 
ment  by  attempting  any  longer  to  exercise  it ; 
they  ought  to  keep  their  unworthy  hands  entire 
ly  off  from  the  cause  of  Republican  liberty,  if  they 
are  capable  of  being  the  victims  of  artifices  so 
shallow  —  of  tricks  so  stale,  so  threadbare,  so 
much  practised,  so  much  worn  out,  on  serfs  and 
slaves. 

GOOD   AND  BAD   INTENTIONS. 

Good  motives  may  always  be  supposed,  as  bad 
motives  may  always  be  imputed.  Good  inten 
tions  will  always  be  pleaded  for  every  assump 
tion  of  power  ;  but  they  cannot  justify  it,  even 
if  we  were  sure  that  they  existed.  It  is  hardly 
too  strong  to  say  that  the  Constitution  was  made 
to  guard  the  people  against  the  dangers  of  good 
intention,  real  or  pretended.  When  bad  inten- 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  35 

tions  are  boldly  avowed,  the  people  will  prompt 
ly  take  care  of  themselves.  On  the  other  hand, 
they  will  always  be  asked,  why  they  should  resist 
or  question  that  exercise  of  power  which  is  so 
fair  in  its  object,  so  plausible  and  patriotic  in 
appearance,  and  which  has  the  public  good  alone 
confessedly  in  view  ?  Human  things,  we  may 
be  assured,  will  generally  exercise  power  when 
they  can  get  it ;  and  they  will  exercise  it  most 
undoubtedly  in  popular  government,  under  pre 
tences  of  public  safety  or  high  public  interest.  It 
may  be  very  possible  that  good  intentions  do 
really  sometimes  exist  when  Constitutional  res 
traints  are  disregarded.  There  are  men  in  all 
ages  who  mean  to  exercise  power  usefully,  but 
who  mean  to  exercise  it.  They  mean  to  govern 
well,  but  they  mean  to  govern.  They  promise 
to  be  kind  masters,  but  they  mean  to  be  masters. 
They  think  there  need  be  but  little  restraint  upon 
themselves.  Their  notion  of  the  public  interest 
is  apt  to  be  quite  closely  connected  with  their 
own  exercise  of  authority.  They  may  not,  in 
deed,  always  understand  their  own  motives.  The 
love  of  power  may  sink  too  deep  in  their  hearts 
even  for  their  own  scrutiny,  and  may  pass  with 
themselves  for  mere  patriotism  and  benevolence. 
A  character  has  been  drawn  of  a  very  eminent 


36  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

citizen  of  Massachusetts,  of  the  last  age,  which, 
though  I  think  it  does  not  entirely  belong  to  him, 
yet  very  well  describes  a  certain  class  of  public 
men.  It  was  said  of  this  distinguished  son  of 
Massachusetts,  that  in  matters  of  politics  and  go 
vernment  he  cherished  the  most  kind  and  bene 
volent  feelings  towards  the  whole  earth.  He 
earnestly  desired  to  see  all  nations  well  govern 
ed  ;  and,  to  bring  about  this  happy  result,  he 
wished  that  the  United  States  might  govern  the 
rest  of  the  world  ;  that  Massachusetts  might  go 
vern  the  United  States  ;  that  Boston  might  go 
vern  Massachusetts ;  and  as  for  himself,  his  own 
humble  ambition  would  be  satisfied  by  govern 
ing  the  little  town  of  Boston. 

AMERICAN  CITIZENSHIP. 

Under  the  present  Constitution,  wisely  and 
conscientiously  administered,  all  are  safe,  happy* 
and  renowned.  The  measure  of  our  country's 
fame  may  fill  our  breasts.  It  is  fame  enough  for 
us  all  to  partake  in  her  glory,  if  we  will  carry 
her  character  onward  to  its  true  destiny.  But 
if  the  system  is  broken,  its  fragments  must  fall 
alike  on  all.  Not  only  the  cause  of  American 
liberty,  but  the  cause  of  Liberty  throughout  the 
whole  earth,  depends,  in  a  great  measure,  on  up- 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  37 

holding  the  Constitution  and  Union  of  these 
States.  If  shattered  and  destroyed,  no  matter  by 
what  cause,  the  peculiar  and  cherished  idea  of 
United  American  Liberty,  will  be  no  more  for 
ever.  There  may  be  free  states,  it  is  possible, 
when  there  shall  be  separate  States.  There  may 
be  many  loose,  and  feeble,  and  hostile  confedera 
cies,  where  there  is  now  one  great  and  united 
confederacy.  But  the  noble  idea  of  United 
American  Liberty,  of  our  Liberty,  such  as  our 
fathers  established  it,  will  be  extinguished  for 
ever.  Fragments  and  severed  columns  of  the 
edifice  may  be  found  remaining,  and  melancholy 
arid  mournful  ruins  will  they  be  ;  the  august  tem 
ple  itself  will  be  prostrate  in  the  dust.  Gentle 
men,  the  citizens  of  this  Republic  cannot  sever 
their  fortunes.  A  common  fate  awaits  us.  In 
the  honor  of  upholding,  or  in  the  disgrace  of  un 
dermining,  the  Constitution,  we  shall  all  neces 
sarily  partake.  Let  us,  then,  stand  by  the  Con 
stitution  as  it  is,  and  by  our  country  as  it  is  ;  one, 
united  and  entire ;  let  it  be  a  truth  engraven  on 
our  hearts,  let  it  be  borne  on  the  flag  under 
which  we  rally  in  every  exigency,  that  we  have 
ONE  COUNTRY,  ONE  CONSTITUTION,  ONE  DESTINY. 


38  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

EXCLUSIVE  METALLIC  CURRENCY. 

Sir,  what  a  money  counting,  tinkling,  jingling 
generation  we  shall  be.  All  the  money  changers 
in  Solomon's  temple  will  be  as  nothing  to  us. 
Our  sound  will  go  forth  unto  all  lands.  We  shall 
all  be  like  the  king  in  the  ditty  of  the  nursery — 
"  There  sat  the  king  a  counting  of  his  money." 

UNION. 

I  am  where  I  have  ever  been  and  ever  mean 
to  be.  Here,  standing  on  the  platform  of  the 
general  Constitution — a  platform  broad  enough 
and  firm  enough  to  uphold  every  interest  of  the 
whole  country  —  I  shall  still  be  found.  Intrust 
ed  with  some  part  in  the  administration  of  that 
Constitution,  I  intend  to  act  in  its  spirit,  and  in 
the  spirit  of  those  who  framed  it.  Yes,  sir,  I 
would  act  as  if  our  fathers,  who  formed  it  for  us, 
and  who  bequeathed  it  to  us,  were  looking  on 
me  —  as  if  I  could  see  their  venerable  forms, 
bending  down  to  behold  us  from  the  abodes 
above.  I  would  act,  too,  as  if  the  eye  of  poste 
rity  was  gazing  on  me. 

Standing  thus,  as  in  the  full  gaze  of  our  an 
cestors,  and  our  posterity,  having  received  this 
inheritance  from  the  former  to  be  transmitted  to 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  39 

the  latter ;  and  feeling  that  if  I  am  born  for  any 
good  in  my  day  and  generation,  it  is  for  the  good 
of  the  whole  country,  no  local  policy  or  local  feel 
ing,  no  temporary  impulse,  shall  induce  me  to 
yield  my  foothold  on  the  Constitution  and  the 
Union.  I  move  off  under  no  banner  not  known 
to  the  whole  American  People,  and  to  their  Con 
stitution  and  laws.  No,  sir,  these  walls,  these 
columns 


"fly 


From  their  firm  base  as  soon  as  I." 
I  came  into  public  life,  sir,  in  the  service  of  the 
United  States.  On  that  broad  altar  my  earliest 
and  all  my  public  vows  have  been  made.  T  pro 
pose  to  serve  no  other  master.  So  far  as  depends 
on  any  agency  of  mine,  they  shall  continue 
United  States  ;  united  in  interest  and  in  affec 
tion  ;  united  in  every  thing  in  regard  to  which 
the  Constitution  has  decreed  their  union ;  united 
in  war,  for  the  common  defence,  the  common 
renown,  and  the  common  glory  ;  and  united, 
compacted,  knit  firmly  together  in  peace,  for  the 
common  prosperity  and  happiness  of  ourselves 
and  our  children. 


40  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 


THE  SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY. 

Sir,  our  condition  is  peculiar.  One  hardly 
knows  how  to  describe  it.  In  the  midst  of  all 
the  bounties  of  Providence,  and  in  a  time  of 
profound  peace,,  we  are  poor.  Our  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  sir,  is  not  Midas.  His  touch  does 
not  turn  every  thing  to  gold.  It  seems  rather  to 
turn  every  thing  into  stone.  It  stops  the  func 
tions  and  the  action  of  organized  social  life,  and 
congeals  the  whole  body  politic.  It  produces  a 
kind  of  instantaneous  petrifaction.  We  see  still 
the  form  of  our  once  active  social  system,  but  it 
is  without  life.  We  can  trace  the  veins  along  its 
cold  surface,  but  they  are  bloodless  ;  we  see  the 
muscles,  but  they  are  motionless  ;  the  external 
form  is  yet  fair  and  goodly,  but  there  is  a  cessa 
tion  of  the  principle  of  life  within. 


Credit  is  the  vital  air  of  the  system  of  Modern 
Commerce.  It  has  done  more,  a  thousand  times, 
to  enrich  nations,  than  all  the  mines  of  all  the 
world.  It  has  excited  labor,  stimulated  manu 
factures,  pushed  commerce  over  every  sea ;  and 
brought  every  nation,  every  kingdom,  and  every 
small  tribe  among  the  races  of  men,  to  be  known 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  41 

to  all  the  rest.  It  has  raised  armies,  equipped 
navies ;  and,  triumphing  over  the  gross  power 
of  mere  numbers,  it  has  established  national  su 
periority  on  the  foundation  of  intelligence, 
wealth,  and  well-directed  industry.  Credit  is  to 
money  what  money  is  to  articles  of  merchandize. 
As  hard  money  represents  property,  so  credit  re 
presents  hard  money  ;  and  is  capable  of  supply 
ing  the  place  of  money  so  completely,  that  there 
are  writers  of  distinction,  especially  of  the  Scotch 
school,  who  insist  that  no  hard  money  is  necessa 
ry  for  the  interests  of  commerce.  I  am  not  of 
that  opinion.  I  do  not  think  any  government 
can  maintain  an  exclusive  paper  system  without 
running  to  excess,  and  thereby  causing  deprecia 
tion. 

BANKS. 

The  history  of  Banks  belongs  to  the  history  of 
Commerce  and  the  general  interests  of  liberty. 
It  belongs  to  the  history  of  those  causes,  which, 
in  a  long  course  of  years,  raised  the  middle  and 
lower  orders  of  society  to  a  state  of  intelligence 
and  property,  in  spite  of  the  iron  sway  of  the 
feudal  system.  In  what  instance  have  they  en 
dangered  liberty  or  overcome  the  laws  1  Their 
very  existence,  on  the  contrary,  depends  on  the 


42  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

security  and  the  rule  both  of  liberty  and  law. 
Why,  sir,  have  we  not  been  taught,  in  our  earli 
est  readings,  that  to  the  birth  of  a  commercial 
spirit,  to  associations  for  trade,  to  the  guilds  and 
companies  formed  in  the  towns,  we  are  to  look 
for  the  first  appearance  of  liberty  from  the  dark 
ness  of  the  middle  ages  ;  for  the  first  faint  blush 
of  that  morning,  which  has  grown  brighter  and 
brighter  till  the  perfect  day  has  come  1 

THE    SUB-TREASURY. 

My  opposition  to  the  bill  is  to  the  whole  of  it. 
It  is  general,  uncompromising,  and  decided.  I 
oppose  all  its  ends,  objects,  and  purposes.  I  op 
pose  all  its  means,  its  inventions,  and  its  contri 
vances.  I  am  opposed  to  the  separation  of  go 
vernment  and  people  ;  I  am  opposed,  now  and 
at  all  times,  to  an  exclusive  metallic  currency ; 
I  am  opposed  to  the  spirit  in  which  the  measure 
originates,  and  to  all  and  every  endeavor  and 
ebullition  of  that  spirit.  I  solemnly  declare,  that 
in  thus  studying  our  own  safety,  and  renouncing 
all  care  over  the  general  currency,  we  are,  in  my 
opinion,  abandoning  one  of  the  plainest  and  most 
important  of  our  constitutional  duties.  If,  sir,  we 
were  at  this  moment  at  war  with  a  powerful 
enemy,  and  if  his  fleets  and  armies  were  now  ra- 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTgR.  43 

vaging  our  shores,  and  it  were  proposed  in  Con 
gress  to  take  care  of  ourselves  —  to  defend  the 
Capitol  and  abandon  the  country  to  its  fate,  it 
would  be  certainly  a  more  striking,  a  more  fla 
grant  and  daring,  but  in  my  judgment  not  a  more 
clear  and  manifest  dereliction  of  duty,  than  we 
commit  in  this  open  and  professed  abandonment 
of  our  constitutional  power  and  constitutional 
duty  over  the  great  interest  of  the  national  cur 
rency.  I  mean  to  maintain  that  constitutional 
power,  and  that  constitutional  duty,  to  the  last. 
It  shall  not  be  with  my  consent  that  our  ancient 
policy  shall  be  overturned.  It  shall  not  be  with 
my  consent  that  the  country  shall  be  plunged 
farther  and  farther  into  the  tmfathomed  depths 
of  new  expedients.  It  shall  not  be  without  a 
voice  of  remonstrance  from  me,  that  one  great 
and  important  purpose  for  which  this  govern 
ment  was  framed,  shall  now  be  utterly  surren 
dered  and  abandoned  for  ever. 

EXECUTIVE    POWER. 

And  now,  sir,  who  is  he  so  ignorant  of  the 
history  of  liberty  at  home  and  abroad ;  who  is 
he,  yet  dwelling  in  his  contemplations  among  the 
principles  and  dogmas  of  the  middle  ages ;  who 
is  he,  from  whose  bosom  all  original  infusion  of 


44  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

American  spirit  has  become  so  entirely  evapora 
ted  and  exhaled,  as  that  he  shall  put  into  the 
mouth  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  the 
doctrine  that  the  defence  of  liberty  naturally  re 
sults  to  executive  power,  and  is  its  peculiar  duty  ] 
Who  is  he  that,  generous  and  confiding  towards 
power  where  it  is  most  dangerous,  and  jealous 
only  of  those  who  can  restrain  it;  who  is  he  that, 
reversing  the  order  of  the  State,  and  upheaving 
the  base,  would  poise  the  political  pyramid  of 
the  political  system  upon  its  apex;  who  is  he 
that,  overlooking  with  contempt  the  guardianship 
of  the  Representatives  of  the  people,  and  with 
equal  contempt  the  higher  guardianship  of  the 
people  themselves;  who  is  he  that  declares  to  us, 
through  the  President's  lips,  that  the  security 
for  freedom  rests  in  executive  authority?  Who 
is  he  that  belies  the  blood  and  libels  the  fame  of 
his  own  ancestors,  by  declaring  that  they,  with 
solemnity  of  form  and  force  of  manner,  have 
invoked  the  executive  power  to  come  to  the  pro 
tection  of  liberty?  Who  is  he  that  thus  charges 
them  with  the  insanity  or  recklessness  of  putting 
the  lamb  beneath  the  lion's  paw  ]  No,  sir ;  our 
security  is  in  our  watchfulness  of  executive 
power.  It  was  the  constitution  of  this  depart 
ment,  which  was  infinitely  the  most  difficult  part 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER1.  45 

in  the  great  work  of  creating  our  present  go 
vernment.  To  give  to  the  executive  department 
such  power  as  should  make  it  useful,  and  yet  not 
such  as  should  render  it  dangerous ;  to  make  it 
efficient,  independent,  and  strong,  and  yet  to  pre 
vent  it  from  sweeping  away  every  thing  by  its 
union  of  military  and  civil  authority,  by  the  in 
fluence  of  patronage,  and  office,  and  favor  :  this, 
indeed,  was  difficult.  They  who  had  the  work 
to  do,  saw  the  difficulty,  and  we  see  it  ;  and  if 
we  would  maintain  our  system,  we  shall  act 
wisely  to  that  end  by  preserving  every  restraint 
and  every  guard  which  the  Constitution  has  pro 
vided.  And  when  we,  and  those  who  come  after 
us,  have  done  all  that  we  can  do,  and  all  that 
they  can  do,  it  will  be  well  for  us  and  for  them, 
if  some  popular  Executive,  by  the  power  of  pa 
tronage  and  party,  and  the  power,  too,  of  that 
very  popularity,  shall  not  hereafter  prove  an 
over-match  for  all  other  branches  of  the  go 
vernment. 

PLYMOUTH    ROCK. 

There  is  a  local  feeling  connected  with  this 
occasion  too  strong  to  be  resisted,  a  sort  of  genius 
of  the  place,  which  inspires  and  awes  us.  We 
feel  that  we  are  on  the  spot  where  the  first  scene 


F"  WEBSTER. 

of  our  history  was  laid  ;  where  the  hearths  and 
altars  of  New-England  were  first  placed;  where 
Christianity,  and  civilization,  and  letters,  made 
their  first  lodgment,  in  a  vast  extent  of  country, 
covered  with  a  wilderness,  and  peopled  with 
roving  barbarians.  We  are  here  at  the  season 
of  the  year  at  which  the  event  took  place.  The 
imagination  irresistibly  arid  rapidly  draws  around 
us  the  principal  features  and  the  leading  cha 
racters  in  the  original  scene.  We  cast  our  eyes 
abroad  on  the  ocean,  and  we  &ee  where  the  little 
bark,  with  the  interesting  group  upon  its  deck, 
made  its  slow  progress  to  the  shore.  We  look 
around  us,  and  behold  the  hills  and  promonto 
ries  where  the  anxious  eyes  of  our  forefathers 
first  saw  the  places  of  habitation  and  of  rest. 
We  feel  the  cold  which  benumbed,  and  listen  to 
the  winds  which  pierced  them.  Beneath  us  is 
the  Rock  on  which  New  England  received  the 
feet  of  the  Pilgrims.  We  seem  even  to  behold 
them,  as  they  struggle  with  the  elements,  and, 
with  toilsome  efforts,  gain  the  shore.  We  listen 
to  the  Chiefs  in  council ;  we  see  the  unexampled 
exhibition  of  female  fortitude  arid  resignation  ; 
we  hear  the  whisperings  of  youthful  impatience  ; 
and  we  see,  what  a  painter  of  our  own  has  also 
represented  by  his  pencil,  chilled  and  shivering 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  47 

childhood,  houseless  but  for  a  mother's  arms, 
couchless  but  for  a  mother's  breast,  till  our  own 
blood  almost  freezes. 

NEW    ENGLAND. 

Let  us  rejoice  that  we  behold  this  day.  Let 
us  be  thankful  that  we  have  lived  to  see  the 
bright  and  happy  breaking  of  the  auspicious 
morn  which  commences  the  third  century  of  the 
History  of  New  England.  Auspicious  indeed  ! 
bringing  an  happiness  beyond  the  common  allot 
ment  of  Providence  to  men  ;  full  of  present  joy, 
and  gilding,  with  bright  beams,  the  prospect  of 
futurity,  is  the  dawn  that  awakens  us  to  the  com 
memoration  of  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims. 

Living  at  an  epoch  which  naturally  marks  the 
progress  of  the  History  of  our  native  land,  we 
have  come  hither  to  celebrate  the  great  event 
with  which  that  history  commenced.  For  ever 
honored  be  this,  the  place  of  our  father's  refuge  ! 
For  ever  remembered  the  day  which  saw  them, 
wearied  and  distressed,  broken  in  every  thing 
but  spirit,  poor  in  all  but  faith  and  courage,  at 
last  secure  from  the  dangers  of  wintry  seas,  and 
impressing  this  shore  with  the  first  footsteps  of 
civilized  man. 


48  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 


ASSOCIATION. 

It  is  a  noble  faculty  of  our  nature  which  ena 
bles  us  to  connect  our  thoughts,  our  sympathies, 
and  our  happiness,  with  what  is  distant  in  place 
or  time ;  and,  looking  before  and  after,  to  hold 
communion  at  once  with  our  ancestors  and  our 
posterity.  Human  and  mortal  though  we  are,  we 
are,  nevertheless,  not  mere  isolated  beings,  with 
out  relation  to  the  past  or  the  future.  Neither 
the  point  of  time,  nor  the  spot  of  earth  in  which 
we  physically  live,  bounds  our  rational  and  intel 
lectual  enjoyments.  We  live  in  the  past,  by  a 
knowledge  of  its  history  ;  and  in  the  future,  by 
hope  and  anticipation.  By  ascending  to  an  as 
sociation  with  our  ancestors  ;  by  contemplating 
their  examples  and  studying  their  character ;  by 
partaking  their  sentiments,  and  imbibing  their 
spirit ;  by  accompanying  them  iu  their  toils  ;  by 
sympathizing  in  their  sufferings,  and  rejoicing  in 
their  successes  and  their  triumphs :  we  mingle 
our  own  existence  with  theirs,  and  seem  to  be 
long  to  their  age.  We  become  their  cotempo- 
raries,  live  the  lives  which  they  lived,  endure 
what  they  endured,  and  partake  in  the  rewards 
which  they  enjoyed.  And  in  like  manner,  by 
running  along  the  line  of  future  time ;  by  con- 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  49 

templating  the  probable  fortunes  of  those  who 
are  coming  after  us ;  by  attempting  something 
which  may  promote  their  happiness,  and  leave 
some,  not  dishonorable,  memorial  of  ourselves 
for  their  regard,  when  we  shall  sleep  with  the 
fathers,  we  protract  our  own  earthly  being,  and 
seem  to  crowd  whatever  is  future,  as  well  as  that 
which  is  past,  into  the  narrow  compass  of  our 
earthly  existence.  As  it  is  not  a  vain  and  false, 
but  an  exalted  arid  religious  imagination,  which 
leads  us  to  raise  our  thoughts  from  the  orb  which, 
amidst  this  universe  of  worlds,  the  Creator  has 
given  us  to  inhabit,  and  to  send  them  with  some 
thing  of  the  feeling  which  nature  prompts,  and 
teaches  to  be  proper  among  children  of  the  same 
Eternal  Parent,  to  the  contemplation  of  the 
myriads  of  fellow-beings  with  which  his  good 
ness  has  peopled  the  infinity  of  space  ;  so  nei 
ther  is  it  false  or  vain  to  consider  ourselves  as 
interested  and  connected  with  our  race  through 
all  time  ;  allied  to  our  ancestors,  allied  to  our 
posterity,  closely  compacted  on  all  sides  with 
others  —  ourselves  being  but  Jinks  in  the  great 
chain  of  being,  which  begins  with  the  origin  of 
our  race,  runs  onward  through  its  successive  ge 
nerations,  binding  together  the  past,  the  present, 
and  the  future,  and  terminating  at  last,  with  the 
5 


50  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

consummation  of  all  things  earthly,  at  the  throne 
of  GOD. 

MARATHON. 

There  have  been  battles  which  have  fixed  the 
fate  of  nations.  These  come  down  to  us  in  his 
tory,  with  a  solemn  and  permanent  interest,  not 
created  by  a  display  of  glittering  armor,  the  rush 
of  adverse  battalions,  the  sinking  and  rising  of 
pennons,  the  flight,  the  pursuit,  and  the  victory  ; 
but  by  their  effect  in  advancing  or  retarding  hu 
man  knowledge,  in  overthrowing  or  establishing 
despotism,  in  extending  or  destroying  human 
happiness.  When  the  traveller  pauses  on  the 
plains  of  Marathon,  what  are  the  emotions  which 
most  strongly  agitate  his  breast  1  What  is  that 

O    «/         o 

glorious  recollection  which  thrills  through  his 
frame  and  suifuses  his  eyes  ]  Not,  I  imagine, 
that  Grecian  skill  and  Grecian  valor  were  here 
most  signally  displayed ;  but  that  Greece  herself 
was  here  saved.  It  is  because,  to  this  spot,  and 
to  the  event  which  has  rendered  it  immortal,  he 
refers  all  the  succeeding  glories  of  the  republic. 
It  is  because,  if  that  day  had  gone  otherwise, 
Greece  had  perished.  It  is  because  he  perceives 
that  her  philosophers  and  orators,  her  poets  and 
painters,  her  sculptors  and  architects,  her  go- 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  51 

vernments  and  free  institutions,  point  backward 
to  Marathon ;  and  that  their  future  existence 
seems  to  have  been  suspended  on  the  contingen 
cy,  whether  the  Persian  or  the  Grecian  banner 
should  wave  victorious  in  the  beams  of  that  day's 
setting  sun.  And  as  his  imagination  kindles  at 
the  retrospect,  he  is  transported  back  to  the  inte 
resting  moment ;  he  counts  the  fearful  odds  of 
the  contending  hosts  ;  his  interest  for  the  result 
overwhelms  him  ;  he  trembles,  as  if  it  were  still 
uncertain,  and  seems  to  doubt  whether  he  may 
consider  Socrates,  and  Plato,  Demosthenes,  So 
phocles,  and  Phidias,  as  secure  yet  to  himself 
and  to  the  world. 

EUROPE. 

Europe,  within  the  same  period,  has  been 
agitated  by  a  mighty  revolution,  which,  while  it 
has  been  felt  in  the  individual  condition  and  hap 
piness  of  almost  every  man,  has  shaken  to  the 
centre  her  political  fabric,  and  dashed  against 
one  another  thrones  which  had  stood  tranquil 
for  ages. 

BUNKER    HILL. 

We  know,  indeed,  that  the  record  of  illustrious 
actions  is  most  safely  deposited  in  the  universal 


52  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

remembrance  of  mankind.  We  know,  that  if 
we  would  cause  this  structure  to  ascend,  not 
only  till  it  reached  the  skies,  but  till  it  pierced 
them,  its  broad  surface  would  still  contain  but 
part  of  that  which,  in  an  age  of  knowledge,  hath 
already  been  spread  over  the  earth,  and  which 
History  charges  itself  with  making  known  to  all 
future  times.  We  know  that  no  inscription  on 
tablatures,  less  broad  than  the  earth  itself,  can 
carry  information  of  the  events  we  commemo 
rate  where  it  has  not  already  gone  ;  and  that  no 
structure,  which  shall  not  outlive  the  duration 
of  letters  and  knowledge  among  men,  can  pro 
long  the  memorial.  But  our  object  is,  by  this 
edifice,  to  show  our  own  deep  sense  of  the  value 
and  importance  of  the  achievements  of  our  an 
cestors;  and,  by  presenting  this  work  of  grati 
tude  to  the  eye,  to  keep  alive  similar  sentiments, 
and  to  foster  a  constant  regard  for  the  principles 
of  the  Revolution.  Human  beings  are  compo 
sed,  not  of  reason  only,  but  of  imagination,  also, 
and  sentiment ;  and  that  is  neither  wasted  nor 
misapplied,  which  is  appropriated  to  the  pur 
pose  of  giving  right  direction  to  sentiments,  and 
opening  proper  springs  of  feeling  in  the  heart. 
Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  our  object  is  to  per 
petuate  national  hostility,  or  even  to  cherish  a 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  53 

mere  military  spirit.  It  is  higher,  purer,  nobler. 
We  consecrate  our  work  to  the  spirit  of  national 
independence,  and  we  wish  that  the  light  of 
peace  may  rest  on  it  for  ever.  We  rear  a  me 
morial  of  our  conviction  of  that  unmeasured  be 
nefit  whicli  has  been  conferred  on  our  own  land, 
and  of  the  happy  influences  which  have  been 
produced  by  the  same  events  on  the  general  in 
terests  of  mankind.  We  come,  as  Americans, 
to  mark  a  spot  which  must  for  ever  be  dear  to  us 
and  our  posterity.  We  wish  that  whosoever,  in 
all  coming  time,  shall  turn  his  eye  hither,  may 
behold  that  the  place  is  not  undistinguished 
where  the  first  great  battle  of  the  Revolution 
was  fought.  We  wish  that  this  structure  may 
proclaim  the  magnitude  and  importance  of  that 
event,  to  every  class  and  every  age.  We  wish 
that  infancy  may  learri  the  purpose  of  its  erec 
tion  from  maternal  lips,  and  that  weary  and 
withered  age  may  behold  it,  and  be  solaced  by 
the  recollections  which  it  suggests.  We  wish 
that  labor  may  look  up  here,  and  be  proud  in  the 
midst  of  its  toil.  We  wish  that  in  those  days  of 
disaster,  which,  as  they  come  on  all  nations, 
must  be  expected  to  come  on  us  also,  despond 
ing  patriotism  may  turn  its  eye  hitherward,  and 
be  assured  that  the  foundations  of  our  national 


54  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

power  will  still  stand  strong.  We  wish  that 
this  column,  rising  towards  heaven,  among  the 
pointed  spires  of  so  many  temples  dedicated  to  * 
God,  may  contribute,  also,  to  produce  in  all 
minds  a  pious  feeling  of  dependence  and  grati 
tude.  We  wish,  finally,  that  the  last  object  on 
the  sight  of  him  who  leaves  his  native  shore,  and 
the  first  to  gladden  him  who  revisits  it,  may  be 
something  which  shall  remind  him  of  the  liberty 
and  the  glory  of  his  country.  Let  it  rise  till  it  meet 
the  sun  in  his  coming.  Let  the  earliest  light  of 
the  morning  s^ild  it,  and  parting  day  linger  and 
play  on  its  summit. 

THE  SURVIVORS  OF  BUNKER  HILL. 

VENERABLE  MEN  !  you  have  come  down  to  us 
from  a  former  generation.  Heaven  has  boun 
teously  lengthened  out  your  lives  that  you  might 
behold  this  joyous  day.  You  are  now  where  you 
stood  fifty  years  ago  this  very  hour,  with  your 
brothers  and  your  neighbors,  shoulder  to  shoul 
der,  in  the  strife  for  your  country.  Behold  how 
altered  !  The  same  heavens  are  indeed  over 
your  heads  ;  the  same  ocean  rolls  at  your  feet ; 
but  all  else,  how  changed  !  You  hear  now  no 
roar  of  hostile  cannon,  you  see  no  mixed  volumes 
of  smoke  and  flame  rising  from  burning  Charles- 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  55 

town.  The  ground  strewed  with  the  dead  and  the 
dying ;  the  impetuous  charge,  the  steady  and 
successful  repulse  ;  the  loud  call  to  repeated 
assault ;  the  summoning  of  all  that  is  manly  to 
repeated  resistance  ;  a  thousand  bosoms  freely 
and  fearlessly  bared  in  an  instant  to  whatever  of 
terror  there  may  be  in  war  and  death  ;  all  these 
you  have  witnessed,  but  you  witness  them  no 
more.  All  is  peace.  The  height  of  yonder  me 
tropolis,  its  towers  and  roots,  which  you  then 
saw  filled  with  wives,  and  children,  and  country 
men,  in  distress  and  terror,  and  looking  with 
unutterable  emotions  for  the  issue  of  the  combat, 
have  presented  you  to-day  with  the  sight  of  its 
whole  happy  population  come  out  to  welcome 
and  greet  you  with  an  universal  jubilee.  Yon 
der  proud  ships,  by  a  felicity  of  position,  appro 
priately  lying  at  the  foot  of  this  mount,  and  seem 
ing  fondly  to  cling  around  it,  are  not  means  of 
annoyance  to  you,  but  your  country's  own  means 
of  distinction  and  defence.  All  is  peace  ;  and 
God  has  granted  you  this  sight  of  your  country's 
happiness  ere  you  slumber  in  the  grave  for  ever. 
He  has  allowed  you  to  behold  and  partake  the 
reward  of  your  patriotic  toil ;  and  he  has  allow 
ed  us,  your  sons  and  countrymen,  to  meet  you 
here,  and  in  the  name  of  the  present  generation  — 


56  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

in  the  name  of  your  country  —  in  the  name  of 
liberty  —  to  thank  you. 

But,  alas  !  you  are  not  all  here.  Time  and  the 
sword  have  thinned  your  ranks.  Prescott,  Put 
nam,  Stark,  Brooks,  Read,  Pomeroy,  Bridge  ! 
our  eyes  seek  for  you  in  vain  amidst  this  broken 
band.  You  are  gathered  to  your  fathers,  and 
live  only  to  your  country  in  her  grateful  remem 
brance  and  your  own  bright  example.  But  let 
us  not  too  much  grieve  that  you  have  met  with 
the  common  fate  of  men.  You  lived  at  least  long 
enough  to  know  that  your  work  had  been  nobly 
and  successfully  accomplished.  You  lived  to  see 
your  country's  independence  established,  and  to 
sheathe  your  swords  from  war.  On  the  light  of 
liberty  you  saw  arise  the  light  of  peace,  like  — 

"  another  morn 
Risen  on  mid-noon  ;" 

and  the  sky  on  which  you  closed  your  eyes,  was 
cloudless. 

GENERAL    WARREN. 

But  ah  !  Him !  the  first  great  martyr  in  this 
great  cause  !  Him  !  the  premature  victim  of  his 
own  self-devoting  heart.  Him  !  the  head  of  our 
civil  councils  and  the  destined  leader  of  our  mi 
litary  bands,  whom  nothing  brought  hither  but 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  57 

the  unquenchable  fire  of  his  own  spirit ;  Him  ! 
cut  off  by  Providence  in  the  hour  of  overwhelm 
ing  anxiety  and  thick  gloom  ;  falling  ere  he  saw 
the  star  of  his  country  rise  ;  pouring  out  his  gen 
erous  blood  like  water  before  he  knew  whether 
it  would  fertilize  a  land  of  freedom  or  of  bon 
dage  !  How  shall  I  struggle  with  the  emotions 
that  stifle  the  utterance  of  thy  name  !  Our  poor 
work  may  perish,  but  thine  shall  endure  !  This 
monument  may  moulder  away ;  the  solid  ground 
it  rests  on  may  sink  down  to  a  level  with  the 
sea  ;  but  thy  memory  shall  not  fail  !  Whereso 
ever  among  men  a  heart  shall  be  found  that 
beats  to  the  transports  of  patriotism  and  liberty, 
its  aspirations  shall  be  to  claim  kindred  with  thy 
spirit  ! 

THE  HEROES  OF  THE  REVOLUTION. 

VETERANS  !  you  are  the  remnant  of  many  a  well 
fought  field.  You  bring  with  you  marks  of  ho 
nor  from  Trenton,  and  Monmouth,  from  York- 
town,  Camden,  Bennington,  and  Saratoga.  VE 
TERANS  OF  HALF  A  CENTURY  !  when  in  your 
youthful  days,  you  put  every  thing  at  hazard  in 
your  country's  cause,  good  as  that  cause  was, 
and  sanguine  as  youth  is,  still  your  fondest  hopes 
did  not  stretch  onward  to  an  hour  like  this  !  At 


58  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

a  period  to  which  you  could  not  reasonably  have 
expected  to  arrive ;  at  a  moment  of  national 
prosperity,  such  as  you  could  never  have  fore 
seen  ;  you  are  now  met  here,  to  enjoy  the  fellow 
ship  of  old  soldiers,  and  to  receive  the  overflow 
ings  of  an  universal  gratitude. 

But  your  agitated  countenances  and  your  heav 
ing  breasts  inform  me  that  even  this  is  not  an  un 
mixed  joy.  I  perceive  that  a  tumult  of  contend 
ing  feelings  rushes  upon  you.  The  images  of 
the  dead,  as  well  as  the  persons  of  the  living, 
throng  to  your  embraces.  The  scene  overwhelms 
you,  and  I  turn  from  it.  May  the  Father  of  all 
mercies  smile  upon  your  declining  years,  and 
bless  them  !  And  when  you  shall  here  have  ex 
changed  your  embraces  —  when  you  shall  once 
more  have  pressed  the  hands  which  have  been 
so  often  extended  to  give  succor  in  adversity,  or 
grasped  in  the  exultation  of  victory;  then  look 
abroad  into  this  lovely  land,  wThich  your  young 
valor  defended,  and  mark  the  happiness  with 
which  it  is  filled ;  yea,  look  abroad  into  the 
whole  earth,  and  see  what  a  name  you  have 
contributed  to  give  to  your  country,  and  what  a 
praise  you  have  added  to  freedom,  and  then  re 
joice  in  the  sympathy  and  gratitude  which  beam 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  59 

upon  your  last  days,  from  the  improved  condition 
of  mankind. 

The  occasion  does  not  require  of  me  any  par 
ticular  account  of  the  battle  of  the  17th  of  June, 
nor  any  detailed  narrative  of  the  events  which 
immediately  preceded  it.  These  are  familiarly 
known  to  all.  In  the  progress  of  the  great  and 
interesting  controversy,  Massachusetts  and  the 
town  of  Boston  had  become  early  and  marked 
objects  of  the  displeasure  of  the  British  Parlia 
ment.  This  had  been  manifested  in  the  Act  for 
altering  the  government  of  the  Province,  and  in 
that  for  shutting  up  the  Port  of  Boston.  Nothing 
sheds  more  honour  on  our  early  history,  and 
nothing  better  shows  how  little  the  feelings  and 
sentiments  of  the  colonies  were  known  or  re 
garded  in  England,  than  the  impression  which 
these  measures  every  where  produced  in  Ame 
rica.  It  had  been  anticipated,  that  while  the 
other  colonies  would  be  terrified  by  the  severity 
of  the  punishment  inflicted  on  Massachusetts, 
the  other  seaports  would  be  governed  by  a  mere 
spirit  of  gain ;  and  that,  as  Boston  was  now  cut 
off  from  all  commerce,  the  unexpected  advan 
tage  which  this  blow  on  her  was  calculated  to 
confer  on  other  towns,  would  be  greedily  enjoy 
ed.  How  miserably  such  reasoners  deceived 


60  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

themselves  !  How  little  they  knew  of  the  depth, 
and  the  strength,  and  the  intenseness  of  that 
feeling  of  resistance  to  illegal  acts  of  power, 
which  possessed  the  whole  American  people  ! 
Every  where  the  unworthy  boon  was  rejected 
with  scorn.  The  fortunate  occasion  was  seized, 
every  where,  to  show  the  whole  world  that  the 
colonies  were  swayed  by  no  local  interest,  no 
partial  interest,  no  selfish  interest.  The  temp 
tation  to  profit  by  the  punishment  of  Boston, 
was  strongest  to  our  neighbors  of  Salem.  Yet 
Salem  was  precisely  the  place  where  this  mise 
rable  proffer  was  spurned,  in  a  tone  of  the  most 
lofty  self-respect,  and  the  most  indignant  pat 
riotism.  "We  are  deeply  affected,"  said  its 
inhabitants,  "  with  the  sense  of  our  public  ca 
lamities,  but  the  miseries  that  are  now  rapidly 
hastening  on  our  brethren  in  the  capital  of  the 
Province,  greatly  excites  our  commiseration.  By 
shutting  up  the  port  of  Boston,  some  imagine 
that  the  course  of  trade  might  be  turned  hither, 
and  to  our  benefit ;  but  we  must  be  dead  to 
every  idea  of  justice,  lost  to  all  feeling  of  hu 
manity,  could  we  indulge  a  thought  to  seize  on 
wealth,  and  raise  our  fortunes  on  the  ruin  of  our 
suffering  neighbors."  These  noble  sentiments 
were  not  confined  to  our  immediate  vicinity.  In 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  61 

that  day  of  general  affliction  and  brotherhood, 
the  blow  given  to  Boston  smote  on  every  patri 
otic  heart,  from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the 
other.  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas,  as  well  as 
Connecticut  and  New  Hampshire,  felt,  and  pro 
claimed  the  cause  to  be  their  own.  The  Conti 
nental  Congress,  then  holding  its  first  session 
in  Philadelphia,  expressed  its  sympathy  for  the 
suffering  inhabitants  of  Boston,  and  addresses 
were  received  from  all  quarters,  assuring  them 
that  the  cause  was  a  common  one,  and  should 
be  met  by  common  efforts  and  common  sacrifi 
ces.  The  Congress  of  Massachusetts  responded 
to  these  assurances ;  and  in  an  address  to  the 
Congress  at  Philadelphia,  bearing  the  official 
signature,  perhaps,  among  the  last,  of  the  im 
mortal  Warren,  notwithstanding  the  severity  of 
its  suffering,  and  the  magnitude  of  the  dangers 
which  threatened  it,  it  was  declared,  that  this 
colony  "  is  ready,  at  all  times,  to  spend  and  to 
be  spent  in  the  cause  of  America." 

But  the  hour  drew  nigh  which  was  to  put 
professions  to  the  proof,  and  to  determine  whe 
ther  the  authors  of  these  mutual  pledges  were 
ready  to  seal  them  in  blood.  The  tidings  of 
Lexington  and  Concord  had  no  sooner  spread, 
than  it  was  universality  felt,  that  the  time  was 

6 


62  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

at  last  come  for  action.  A  spirit  pervaded  all 
ranks,  not  transient,  not  boisterous,  but  deep, 
solemn,  determined, 

"totamque  infusa  per  artus 
Mens  agitat  molem,  et  magno  se  corpore  miscit." 

War,  on  their  own  soil,  and  at  their  own  doors, 
was,  indeed,  strange  work  to  the  yeomanry  of 
New  England  ;  but  their  consciences  were  con 
vinced  of  its  necessity  —  their  country  called 
them  to  it,  and  they  did  not  withhold  themselves 
from  the  perilous  trial.  The  ordinary  occupa 
tions  of  life  were  abandoned ;  the  plough  was 
staid  in  the  unfinished  furrow ;  wives  gave  up 
their  husbands,  and  mothers  gave  up  their  sons, 
to  the  battles  of  a  civil  war.  Death  might  come, 
in  honor,  on  the  field  ;  it  might  come,  in  disgrace, 
on  the  scaffold.  For  either,  and  for  both,  they 
were  prepared.  The  sentiment  of  Quincy  was 
full  in  their  hearts.  "Blandishments,"  said  that 
distinguished  son  of  genius  and  patriotism,  "  will 
not  fascinate  us,  nor  will  threats  of  a  halter  in 
timidate  ;  for,  under  God,  we  are  determined, 
that  wheresoever,  whensoever,  or  howsoever  we 
shall  be  called  to  make  our  exit,  we  will  die  free 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  63 


THE    FEELING    OF    THE    PILGRIMS. 

"  If  God  prosper  us,"  might  have  been  the 
appropriate  language  of  our  fathers,  when  they 
landed  on  the  rock  ;  if  God  prosper  us,  we  shall 
here  begin  a  work  which  shall  last  for  ages ;  we 
shall  plant  here  a  new  society,  in  the  principles 
of  the  fullest  liberty,  and  the  purest  religion  ;  we 
shall  subdue  this  wilderness,  which  is  before  us ; 
we  shall  fill  this  region  of  the  great  continent, 
which  stretches  from  pole  to  pole,  with  civiliza 
tion  and  Christianity ;  the  temples  of  the  true 
God  shall  rise  where  now  ascends  the  smoke  of 
idolatrous  sacrifice  ;  fields  and  gardens  —  the 
flowers  of  summer,  and  the  waving  and  golden 
harvests  of  autumn,  shall  extend  over  a  thousand 
hills,  and  stretch  along  a  thousand  valleys,  never, 
since  the  creation,  reclaimed  to  the  use  of  civili 
zed  man.  We  shall  whiten  this  coast  with  the 
canvass  of  a  prosperous  commerce  ;  we  shall 
stud  the  long  and  winding  shore  with  a  hundred 
cities.  That  which  we  sow  in  weakness,  shall 
be  raised  in  strength.  From  our  sincere  but 
houseless  worship,  there  shall  spring  splendid 
temples  to  record  God's  goodness ;  from  the 
simplicity  of  our  social  union,  there  shall  arise 
wise  and  politic  constitutions  of  government  — 


64  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

full  of  the  liberty  which  we  ourselves  bring  and 
breathe  ;  from  our  zeal  for  learning,  institutions 
shall  spring  up,  which  shall  scatter  the  light  of 
knowledge  throughout  the  land ;  and  in  time, 
paying  back  where  they  have  borrowed,  shall 
contribute  their  part  to  the  great  aggregate  of 
human  knowledge ;  and  our  descendants, 
through  all  generations,  shall  look  back  to  this 
spot,  and  to  this  hour,  with  unabated  affection 
and  regard. 

LOVE    OF    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 

They  sought  to  enjoy  a  higher  degree  of  reli 
gious  freedom,  and  what  they  esteemed  a  purer 
form  of  religious  worship,  than  was  allowed  to 
their  choice  or  presented  to  their  imitation  in  the 
old  world.  The  love  of  religious  liberty  is  a 
stronger  sentiment,  when  fully  excited,  than  an 
attachment  to  civil  or  political  freedom.  That 
freedom  which  conscience  demands,  and  which 
men  feel  bound  by  their  hopes  of  salvation  to 
contend  for,  can  hardly  fail  to  be  attained.  Con 
science  in  the  cause  of  religion  and  the  worship 
of  the  deity,  prepares  the  mind  to  act  and  to  suf 
fer  beyond  almost  all  other  causes.  It  sometimes 
gives  an  impulse  so  irresistible,  that  no  fetters  of 
power  or  of  opinion  can  withstand  it.  History 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  65 

instructs  us  that  this  love  of  religious  liberty,  a 
compound  sentiment  in  the  breast  of  man,  made 
up  of  the  clearest  sense  of  right  and  the  highest 
conviction  of  duty,  is  able  to  look  the  sternest 
despotism  in  the  face  ;  and  with  means,  appa 
rently  the  most  inadequate,  to  shake  principali 
ties  and  powers.  There  is  a  boldness,  a  spirit  of 
daring,  in  religious  reformers,  not  to  be  measur 
ed  by  the  general  rules  which  control  men's 
purposes  and  actions.  If  the  hand  of  power  be 
laid  upon  it,  this  only  seems  to  augment  its  force 
and  its  elasticity,  and  to  cause  its  actions  to  be 
more  formidable  and  terrible.  Human  invention 
has  devised  nothing,  human  power  has  compass 
ed  nothing,  that  can  forcibly  restrain  it  when  it 
breaks  forth.  Nothing  can  stop  it  but  to  give 
way  to  it ;  nothing  can  check  it  but  indulgence. 
It  loses  its  power  only  when  it  has  gained  its  ob 
ject.  The  principle  of  toleration,  to  which  the 
world  has  come  so  slowly,  is  at  once  the  most 
just  and  the  most  wise  of  all  principles.  Even 
when  religious  feeling  takes  a  character  of  ex 
travagance  and  enthusiasm,  and  seems  to  threat 
en  the  order  of  society,  and  shake  the  columns 
of  the  social  edifice,  its  principal  danger  is  in  its 
restraint.  If  it  be  allowed  indulgence  arid  ex 
pansion,  like  the  elemental  fires,  it  only  agitates, 

6* 


66  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

and  perhaps  purifies  the  atmosphere,  while  its 
efforts  to  throw  off  restraint  would  burst  the 
world  asunder. 

THE  PILGRIMS  IN  ENGLAND. 

As  this  scene  passes  before  us,  we  can  hardly 
forbear  asking,  whether  this  be  a  band  of  male 
factors  and  felons  flying  from  justice  1  What 
are  their  crimes,  that  they  hide  themselves  in 
darkness  ]  To  what  punishment  are  they  ex 
posed,  that  to  avoid  it,  men,  and  women,  and  chil 
dren,  thus  encounter  the  surf  of  the  North  Sea, 
and  the  terrors  of  a  night  storm  ]  What  induces 
this  armed  pursuit,  and  this  arrest  of  fugitives, 
of  all  ages  and  of  both  sexes  1  Truth  does  not 
allow  us  to  answer  these  inquiries,  in  a  manner 
that  does  credit  to  the  wisdom  or  the  justice  of 
the  times.  This  was  not  the  flight  of  guilt,  but 
of  virtue.  It  was  an  humble  and  peaceable  reli 
gion,  flying  from  causeless  oppression.  It  was 
conscience,  attempting  to  escape  from  the  arbi 
trary  rule  of  the  Stuarts.  It  was  Robinson,  and 
Brewster,  leading  off  their  little  band  from  their 
native  soil,  at  first  to  find  shelter  on  the  shores 
of  a  neighboring  continent,  but  ultimately  to 
come  hither  ;  and  having  surmounted  all  difficul 
ties,  and  braved  a  thousand  dangers,  to  find  here 


BEAUTIES  OP  WEBSTER,  67 

a  place  of  refuge  and  of  rest.  Thanks  be  to  God, 
that  this  spot  was  honored  as  the  asylum  of  re 
ligious  liberty.  May  its  standard,  reared  here, 
remain  forever !  —  May  it  rise  up  as  high  as 
heaven,  till  its  banners  shall  fan  the  air  of  both 
continents,  and  wave  as  a  glorious  ensign  of  peace 
and  security  to  the  nations. 

MILITARY    FAME. 

Great  actions  and  striking  occurrences,  hav 
ing  excited  a  temporary  admiration,  often  pass 
away  and  are  forgotten,  because  they  leave  no 
lasting  results,  affecting  the  prosperity  and  hap 
piness  of  communities.  Such  is  frequently  the 
fortune  of  the  most  brilliant  military  achieve 
ments.  Of  the  ten  thousand  battles  which  have 
been  fought ;  of  all  the  fields  fertilized  with  car 
nage  ;  of  the  banners  which  have  been  bathed  in 
blood  ;  of  the  warriors  who  had  hoped  that  they 
had  risen  from  the  field  of  conquest  to  a  glory  as 
bright  and  as  durable  as  the  stars,  how  few  that 
continue  long  to  interest  mankind  !  The  victory 
of  yesterday  is  reversed  by  the  defeat  of  to-day  ; 
the  star  of  military  glory,  rising  like  a  meteor, 
like  a  meteor  has  fallen ;  disgrace  and  disaster 
hang  on  the  heels  of  conquest  and  renown  ;  victor 
and  vanquished  presently  pass  away  to  oblivion, 


68  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

and  the  world  goes  on  in  its  course,  with  the  loss 
only  of  so  many  lives  and  so  much  treasure. 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF  MIND. 

Cultivated  mind  was  to  act  on  uncultivated 
nature  ;  and,  above  all,  a  government,  and  a 
country,  were  to  commence,  with  the  very  first 
foundations  laid  under  the  divine  light  of  the 
Christian  religion.  Happy  auspices  of  a  happy 
futurity  !  Who  would  wish  that  his  country's 
existence  had  otherwise  begun  ?  who  would  de 
sire  the  power  of  going  back  to  the  ages  of  fable  ] 
who  would  wish  for  an  origin,  obscured  in  the 
darkness  of  antiquity  1  who  would  wish  for  other 
emblazoning  of  his  country's  heraldry,  or  other 
ornaments  of  her  genealogy,  than  to  be  able  to 
say,  that  her  first  existence  was  with  intelligence ; 
her  first  breath  the  inspiration  of  liberty ;  her 
first  principles  the  truth  of  divine  religion  ? 

THE  AFRICAN  SLAVE    TRADE. 

I  deem  it  my  duty  on  this  occasion  to  sug 
gest,  that  the  land  is  not  yet  wholly  free  from 
the  contamination  of  a  traffic,  at  which  every 
feeling  of  humanity  must  for  ever  revolt,  —  I 
mean  the  African  Slave  Trade.  Neither  public 
sentiment,  nor  the  laws,  has  hitherto  been  able 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  69 

entirely  to  put  an  end  to  this  odious  and  abomi 
nable  trade.  At  the  moment  when  God,  in  his 
mercy,  has  blessed  the  Christian  world  with  an 
universal  peace,  there  is  reason  to  fear,  that  to 
the  disgrace  of  the  Christian  name  and  charac 
ter,  new  efforts  are  making  for  the  extension  of 
this  trade,  by  subjects  and  citizens  of  Christian 
states,  in  whose  hearts  no  sentiment  of  humanity 
or  justice  inhabits,  and  over  whom  neither  the 
fear  of  God  nor  the  fear  of  man  exercises  a  con 
trol.  In  the  sight  of  our  law,  the  African  Slave 
Trader  is  a  pirate  and  a  felon  ;  and  in  the  sight 
of  heaven,  an  offender  far  beyond  the  ordinary 
depth  of  human  guilt.  There  is  no  brighter  part 
of  our  history,  than  that  which  records  the  mea 
sures  which  have  been  adopted  by  the  govern 
ment,  at  an  early  day,  and  at  different  times 
since,  for  the  suppression  of  this  traffic ;  and  I 
would  call  on  all  the  true  sons  of  New  England, 
to  co-operate  with  the  laws  of  man,  and  the  jus 
tice  of  heaven.  If  there  be,  within  the  extent  of 
our  knowledge  or  influence,  any  participation  in 
this  traffic,  let  us  pledge  ourselves  here,  upon 
the  Ilock  of  Plymouth,  to  extirpate  and  destroy 
it.  It  is  not  fit  that  the  land  of  the  Pilgrims 
should  bear  the  shame  longer.  I  hear  the  sound 
of  the  hammer,  I  see  the  smoke  of  the  furnaces 


70  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

where  manacles  and  fetters  are  still  forged  for 
human  limbs.  I  see  the  visages  of  those,  who 
by  stealth,  and  at  midnight,  labor  in  this  work  of 
hell,  foul  and  dark,  as  may  become  the  artificers 
of  such  instruments  of  misery  and  torture.  Let 
that  spot  be  purified,  or  let  it  cease  to  be  of 
New  England.  Let  it  be  purified,  or  let  it  be 
set  aside  from  the  Christian  world  ;  let  it  be  put 
out  of  the  circles  of  human  sympathies  and  hu 
man  regards,  and  let  civilized  man  henceforth 
have  no  communion  with  it. 

I  would  invoke  those  who  fill  the  seats  of  jus 
tice,  and  all  who  minister  at  her  altar,  that  they 
execute  the  wholesome  and  necessary  severity 
of  the  law.  I  invoke  the  ministers  of  our  religion 
that  they  proclaim  its  denunciation  of  these 
crimes,  and  add  its  solemn  sanctions  to  the  au 
thority  of  human  laws.  If  the  pulpit  be  silent, 
whenever,  and  wherever,  there  may  be  a  sinner 
bloody  with  this  guilt  within  the  hearing  of  its 
voice,  the  pulpit  is  false  to  its  trust.  I  call  on 
the  fair  merchant,  who  has  reaped  his  harvest 
on  the  seas,  that  he  assist  in  scourging  from  those 
seas  the  worst  pirates  which  ever  infested  them. 
That  ocean,  which  seems  to  wave  with  a  gentle 
magnificence  to  waft  the  burden  of  an  honest 
commerce,  and  to  roll  along  its  treasures  with  a 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  71 

conscious  pride ;  that  ocean  which  hardy  industry 
regards,  even  when  the  winds  have  ruffled  its 
surface,  as  a  field  of  grateful  toil;  what  is  it  to 
the  victim  of  this  oppression,  when  he  is  brought 
to  its  shores,  and  looks  forth  upon  it,  for  the  first 
time,  from  beneath  chains,  and  bleeding  with 
stripes  ]  What  is  it  to  him,  but  a  wide-spread 
prospect  of  suffering,  anguish,  and  death  I  Nor 
do  the  skies  smile  longer,  nor  is  the  air  longer 
fragrant  to  him.  The  sun  is  cast  down  from 
heaven.  An  inhuman  and  accursed  traffic  has 
cut  him  off  in  his  manhood,  or  in  his  youth,  from 
every  enjoyment  belonging  to  his  being,  and 
every  blessing  which  his  Creator  intended  for 
him. 

The  Christian  communities  send  forth  their 
emissaries  of  religion  and  letters,  who  stop,  here 
and  there,  along  the  coast  of  the  vast  continent 
of  Africa,  and  with  painful  and  tedious  efforts, 
make  some  almost  imperceptible  progress  in  the 
communication  of  knowledge,  and  in  the  general 
improvement  of  the  natives  who  are  immediate 
ly  about  them.  Not  thus  slow  and  impercepti 
ble  is  the  transmission  of  the  vices  and  bad  pas 
sions  which  the  subjects  of  Christian  states  carry 
to  the  land.  The  slave  trade  having  touched 
the  coast,  its  influence  and  its  evils  spread  like 


72  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.       , 

a  pestilence  over  the  whole  continent,  making 
savage  wars  more  savage,  and  more  frequent, 
and  adding  new  and  fierce  passions  to  the  con 
tests  of  barbarians. 

KNOWLEDGE. 

A  chief  distinction  of  the  present  day,  is  a 
community  of  opinions  and  knowledge  amongst 
men,  in  different  nations,  existing  in  a  degree 
heretofore  unknown.  Knowledge  has,  in  our 
time,  triumphed,  and  is  triumphing,  over  distance, 
over  differences  of  language,  over  diversity  of 
habits,  over  prejudice,  and  over  bigotry.  The 
civilized  and  Christian  world  is  fast  learning  the 
great  lesson,  that  differences  of  nation  does  not 
imply  necessary  hostility,  and  that  all  contact 
need  not  be  war.  The  whole  world  is  becom 
ing  a  field  for  intellect  to  act  in.  Energy  of 
mind,  genius,  power,  wheresoever  it  exists,  may 
speak  out  in  any  tongue,  and  the  world  will  hear 
it.  A  great  chord  of  sentiment  and  feeling 
runs  through  two  continents,  and  vibrates  over 
both.  Every  breeze  wafts  intelligence  from 
country  to  country  ;  every  wave  rolls  it;  all  give 
it  forth,  and  all,  in  turn,  receive  it.  There  is  a 
vast  commerce  of  ideas  ;  there  are  marts  and 
exchanges  for  intellectual  discoveries,  and  a 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  73 

wonderful  fellowship  of  those  individual  intelli 
gences,  which  make  up  the  mind  and  opinion  of 
the  age.  Mind  is  the  great  lever  of  all  things; 
human  thought  is  the  process  by  which  human 
ends  are  ultimately  answered ;  and  the  diffusion 
of  knowledge,  so  astonishing  in  the  last  half 
century,  has  rendered  innumerable  minds,  va 
riously  gifted  by  nature,  competent  to  be  com 
petitors,  or  fellow- workers,  on  the  theatre  of  in 
tellectual  operation. 

REVOLUTION. 

The  great  wheel  of  political  revolution  began 
to  move  in  America.  Here  its  rotation  was 
guarded,  regular,  and  safe.  Transferred  to  the 
other  continent,  from  unfortunate  but  natural 
causes,  it  received  an  irregular  and  violent  im 
pulse  ;  it  whirled  along,  with  a  fearful  celerity, 
till  at  length,  like  the  chariot  wheels  in  the  races 
of  antiquity,  it  took  fire,  from  the  rapidity  of  its 
own  motion,  and  blazed  onward,  spreading  con 
flagration  and  terror  around. 

ADAMS    AND    JEFFERSON. 

Adams  and  Jefferson,  I  have  said,  are  no 
more.  As  human  beings,  indeed,  they  are  no 
more.  They  are  no  more,  as  in  1776,  bold  and 

7 


74  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

fearless  advocates  of  independence  ;  no  more, 
subsequent  periods,  the  head  of  the  go 
vernment  ;  no  more,  as  we  have  recently  seen 
them,  aged  and  venerable  objects  of  admiration 
and  regard.  They  are  no  more.  They  are 
dead.  But  how  little  is  there  of  the  great  and 
good  which  can  die  !  To  their  country  they  yet 
live,  and  live  for  ever.  They  live  in  all  that 
perpetuates  the  remembrance  of  men  on  earth  ; 
in  the  recorded  proofs  of  their  own  great  ac 
tions  —  in  the  offspring  of  their  intellect  —  in 
the  deep  engraved  lines  of  public  gratitude,  and 
in  the  respect  and  homage  of  mankind.  They 
live  in  their  ^xample :  and  they  live,  emphati 
cally,  and  will  live,  in  the  influence  which  their 
efforts,  their  principles,  and  opinions,  now 

aid  will  continue  to  exercise,  on  the  affairs 
of  men,  not  only  in  their  own  country,  but 
throughout  the  civilized  world.  A  superior  and 
commanding  human  intellect,  a  truly  great  man, 
when  heaven  vouchsafes  so  rare  a  gift,  is  not  a 
temporary  flame,  burning  bright  for  awhile,  and 
then  expiring,  giving  place  to  returning  dark- 
It  is  rather  a  spark  of  fervent  heat,  as  well 
as  radiant  light,  with  power  to  enkindle  the 
common  mass  of  human  mind  j  so  that  when  it 
elimmers,  in  its  own  decay,  and  finally  goes  out 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  75 

in  death,  no  night  follows,  but  it  leaves  the  world 
all  light,  all  on  fire,  from  the  potent  contact  of 
its  own  spirit.  Bacon  died;  but  the  human  un 
derstanding,  roused  by  the  touch  of  his  miracu 
lous  wand,  to  a  perception  of  the  true  philosophy, 
and  the  just  mode  of  inquiring  after  truth,  has 
kept  on  its  course,  successfully  and  gloriously. 
Newton  died  ;  yet  the  courses  of  the  spheres 
are  still  known,  and  they  yet  move  on,  in  the 
orbits  which  he  saw,  and  described  for  thorn,  in 
the  infinity  of  space.  * 

We  are  not  assembled,  therefore,  fellow-citi 
zens,  as  men  overwhelmed  by  calamity,  by  the 
sudden  disruption  of  the  ties  of  friendship  or 
affection,  or  as  in  despair  for  the  republic,  by  the 
untimely  blighting  of  its  hopes.  Death  has  not 
surprised  us  by  an  unseasonable  blow.  We 
have,  indeed,  seen  the  tomb  close,  but  it  has 
closed  only  over  mature  years  —  over  long  pro 
tracted  public  service  —  over  the  weakness  of 
age,  and  over  life  itself,  only  when  the  ends  of 
living  had  been  fulfilled.  These  suns,  as  they 
rose  steadily  and  slowly,  amidst  clouds  and 
storms  in  their  ascendant,  so  they  have  not  rush 
ed  from  their  meridian,  to  sink  suddenly  in  the 
west.  Like  the  mildness,  the  serenity,  the  con 
tinuing  benignity  of  a  summer's  day,  they  have 


76  BEAUTIES  OP  WEBSTER. 

gone  down  with  slow  descending,  grateful,  long 
lingering  light ;  and  now,  that  they  are  beyond 
the  visible  margin  of  the  world,  good  omens 
cheer  us  from  "the  bright  track  of  their  fiery 
car!" 

TRUE  ORATORY. 

When  public  bodies  are  to  be  addressed  on 
momentous  occasions,  when  great  interests  are 
at  stake,  and  strong  passions  excited,  nothing  is 
valuable  in  speech,  farther  than  it  is  connected 
with  high  intellectual  and  moral  endowments. 
Clearness,  force,  and  earnestness,  are  the  quali 
ties  which  produce  conviction.  True  eloquence, 
indeed,  does  not  consist  in  speech.  It  cannot 
be  brought  from  afar.  Labor  and  learning  may 
toil  for  it,  but  they  will  toil  in  vain.  Words  and 
phrases  may  be  marshalled  in  every  way,  but 
they  cannot  compass  it.  It  must  exist  in  the 
man,  in  the  subject,  and  in  the  occasion.  Affect 
ed  passion,  intense  expression,  the  pomp  of  de 
clamation,  all  may  aspire  after  it  —  they  cannot 
reach  it.  It  comes,  if  it  come  at  all,  like  the 
outbreaking  of  a  fountain  from  the  earth,  or  the 
bursting  forth  of  volcanic  fires,  with  spontaneous, 
original,  native  force.  The  graces  taught  in  the 
schools,  the  costly  ornaments  and  studied  con- 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  77 

trivances  of  speech,  shock  and  disgust  men, 
when  their  own  lives,  and  the  fate  of  their  wives, 
their  children,  and  their  country,  hang  on  the 
decision  of  the  hour.  Then  words  have  lost  their 
power,  rhetoric  is  vain,  and  all  elaborate  oratory 
contemptible.  Even  genius  itself  then  feels  re 
buked,  and  subdued,  as  in  the  presence  of  higher 
qualities.  Then  patriotism  is  eloquent ;  then 
self-devotion  is  eloquent.  The  clear  conception, 
outrunning  the  deductions  of  logic  —  the  high 
purpose,  the  firm  resolve,  the  dauntless  spirit, 
speaking  on  the  tongue,  beaming  from  the  eye, 
informing  every  feature,  and  urging  the  whole 
man  onward,  right  onward  to  his  object — this, 
this  is  eloquence  ;  or,  rather,  it  is  something 
greater  and  higher  than  all  eloquence  —  it  is 
action  —  noble,  sublime,  and  godlike  action. 

JEFFERSON. 

Thus  useful,  and  thus  respected,  passed  the 
old  age  of  Thomas  Jefferson.  But  time  was  on 
its  ever  ceaseless  wing,  and  was  now  bringing 
the  last  hour  of  this  illustrious  man.  He  saw  its 
approach,  with  undisturbed  serenity.  He  count 
ed  the  moments  as  they  passed,  and  beheld  that 
his  last  sands  were  falling.  That  day,  too,  was 
at  hand,  which  he  had  helped  to  make  immortal. 


78  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

One  wish,  one  hope,  if  it  were  not  presump 
tuous  —  beat  in  his  fainting  breast.  Could  it  be 
so  —  might  it  please  God  —  he  would  desire  — 
once  more  to  see  the  sun  —  once  more  to  look 
abroad  on  the  scene  around  him,  on 'that  great 
day  of  liberty.  Heaven,  in  its  mercy,  fulfilled 
that  prayer.  —  He  saw  that  sun  —  he  enjoyed  its 
sacred  light  —  he  thanked  God  for  his  mercy, 
and  bowed  his  aged  head  to  the  grave.  "  Felix 
non  vitcp  tantum  claritate>  sed  etiam  opportunitate 
mortis" 

THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  DEAD. 

Fellow-citizens,  I  will  detain  you  no  longer 
by  this  faint  and  feeble  tribute  to  the  memory  of 
the  illustrious  dead.  Even  in  other  hands,  ade 
quate  justice  could  not  be  performed,  within  the 
limits  of  this  occasion.  Their  highest,  their  best 
praise,  is  your  deep  conviction  of  their  merits, 
your  affectionate  gratitude  for  their  labors  and 
services.  It  is  not  my  voice,  it  is  this  cessation 
of  ordinary  pursuits,  this  arresting  of  all  atten 
tion,  these  solemn  ceremonies,  and  this  crowded 
house,  which  speak  their  eulogy.  Their  fame, 
indeed,  is  safe.  That  is  now  treasured  up,  be 
yond  the  reach  of  accident.  Although  no  sculp 
tured  marble  shall  rise  to  their  memory,  nor  en- 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  79 

graved  stone  bear  records  of  their  deeds,  yet  will 
their  remembrance  be  as  lasting  as  the  land  they 
honored.  Marble  columns  may,  indeed,  moulder 
into  dust,  time  may  erase  all  impress  from  the 
crumbling  stone,  but  their  fame  remains  ;  for 
with  American  liberty  it  rose,  and  with  Ameri 
can  liberty  only  can  it  perish.  It  was  the  last 
swelling  peal  of  yonder  choir,  "  their  bodies  are 
buried  in  peace,  but  their  name  liveth  evermore." 
I  catch  that  solemn-  song.  I  echo  that  lofty  strain 
of  funeral  triumph,  "  their  name  liveth  ever 
more." 

ANCESTRY. 

There  may  be,  and  there  often  is,  indeed,  a 
regard  for  ancestry,  which  nourishes  only  a  weak 
pride  ;  as  there  is  also  a  care  for  posterity,  which 
only  disguises  an  habitual  avarice,  or  hides  the 
workings  of  alow  and  grovelling  vanity.  But  there 
is  also  a  moral  and  philosophical  respect  for  our 
ancestors,  which  elevates  the  character  and  im 
proves  the  heart.  Next  to  the  sense  of  religions 
duty  and  moral  feeling,  I  hardly  know  what 
should  bear  with  stronger  obligation  on  a  liberal 
and  enlightened  mind,  than  a  consciousness  of 
alliance  with  excellence  which  is  departed ;  and 
a  consciousness,  too,  that  in  its  acts  and  conduct, 


80  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

and  even  in  its  sentiments  and  thoughts,  it  may 
be  actively  operating  on  the  happiness  of  those 
who  come  after  it.  Poetry  is  found  to  have  few 
stronger  conceptions,  by  which  it  would  affect  or 
overwhelm  the  mind,  than  those  in  which  it  pre 
sents  the  moving  and  speaking  image  of  the  de 
parted  dead  to  the  senses  of  the  living.  This 
belongs  to  poetry,  only  because  it  is  congenial 
to  our  nature.  Poetry  is,  in  this  respect,  but  the 
handmaid  of  true  philosophy  and  morality  ;  it 
deals  with  us  as  human  beings,  naturally  rever 
encing  those  whose  visible  connexion  with  this 
state  of  existence  is  severed,  and  who  may  yet 
exercise  we  know  not  what  sympathy  with  our 
selves  ;  —  and  when  it  carries  us  forward,  also, 
and  shows  us  the  long  continued  result  of  all  the 
good  we  do,  in  the  prosperity  of  those  who  fol 
low  us,  till  it  bears  us  from  ourselves,  and  ab 
sorbs  us  in  an  intense  interest  for  what  shall  hap 
pen  to  the  generations  after  us,  it  speaks  only  in 
the  language  of  our  nature,  and  affects  us  with 
sentiments  which  belong  to  us  as  human  beings. 
Standing  in  this  relation  to  our  ancestors  and 
our  posterity,  we  are  assembled  on  this  memora 
ble  spot,  to  perform  the  duties  which  that  rela 
tion,  and  the  present  occasion,  impose  upon  us. 
We  have  come  to  this  Rock,  to  record  here  our 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  81 

homage  for  our  Pilgrim  Fathers ;  our  sympathy 
in  their  sufferings  ;  our  gratitude  for  their  labors  ; 
our  admiration  of  their  virtues  ;  our  veneration 
for  their  piety  ;  and  our  attachment  to  those  prin 
ciples  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  which  they 
encountered  the  dangers  of  the  ocean,  the  storms 
of  heaven,  the  violence  of  savages,  disease,  exile, 
and  famine,  to  enjoy  and-  to  establish.  And  we 
would  leave  here,  also,  for  the  generations  which 
are  rising  up  rapidly  to  fill  our  places,  some  proof, 
that  we  have  endeavored  to  transmit  the  great 
inheritance  unimpaired  ;  that  in  our  estimate  of 
public  principles,  and  private  virtue  ;  in  our  ve 
neration  of  religion  and  piety  ;  in  our  devotion  to 
civil  and  religious  liberty  ;  in  our  regard  to  what 
ever  advances  human  knowledge,  or  improves 
human  happiness,  we  are  not  altogether  unwor 
thy  of  our  origin. 

ANCIENT   COLONIZATION. 

Among  the  ancient  nations,  the  Greeks,  no 
doubt,  sent  forth  from  their  territories  the  great 
est  number  of  colonies.  So  numerous,  indeed, 
were  they,  and  so  great  the  extent  of  space  over 
which  they  were  spread,  that  the  parent  country 
fondly  and  naturally  persuaded  herself,  that  by 
means  of  them  she  had  laid  a  sure  foundation  for 


82  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

the  universal  civilization  of  the  world.  These 
establishments,  from  obvious  causes,  were  most 
numerous  in  places  most  contiguous ;  yet  they 
were  found  on  the  coasts  of  France,  on  the 
shores  of  the  Euxine  Sea,  in  Africa,  and  even, 
as  is  alleged,  on  the  borders  of  India.  These 
emigrations  appear  to  have  been  sometimes  vol 
untary,  and  sometimes  compulsory  ;  arising  from 
the  spontaneous  enterprise  of  individuals,  or  the 
order  and  regulation  of  government.  It  was  a 
common  opinion  with  ancient  writers,  that  they 
were  undertaken  in  religious  obedience  to  the 
commands  of  oracles;  and  it  is  probable  that 
impressions  of  this  sort  might  have  had  more  or 
less  influence ;  but  it  is  probable,  also,  that  on 
these  occasiqns,  the  oracles  did  not  speak  a  lan 
guage  dissonant  from  the  views  and  purposes  of 
the  state. 

Political  science  among  the  Greeks,  seems 
never  to  have  extended  to  the  comprehension  of 
a  system,  which  should  be  adequate  to  the  go 
vernment  of  a  great  nation,  upon  principles  of 
liberty.  They  were  accustomed  only  to  the 
contemplation  of  small  republics,  and  were  led  to 
consider  an  augmented  population  as  incompati 
ble  with  free  institutions.  The  desire  of  a  re 
medy  for  this  supposed  evil,  and  the  wish  to 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  83 

establish  marts  for  trade,  led  the  governments 
often  to  undertake  the  establishment  of  colonies, 
as  an  affair  of  state  expediency.  Colonization 
and  commerce,  indeed,  would  naturally  become 
objects  of  interest  to  an  ingenious  and  enterpri 
sing  people,  inhabiting  a  territory  closely  circum 
scribed  in  its  limits,  and  in  no  small  part,  moun 
tainous  and  sterile ;  while  the  islands  of  the  ad 
jacent  seas,  and  promontories  and  coasts  of  the 
neighboring  continents,  by  their  mere  proximity, 
strongly  solicited  the  excited  spirit  of  emigra 
tion.  Such  was  this  proximity,  in  many  instances, 
that  the  Hew  settlements  appeared  rather  to  be 
the  mere  extension  of  population  over  contigu 
ous  territory,  than  the  establishment  of  distant 
colonies.  In  proportion  as  they  were  near  to 
the  parent  state,  they  would  be  under  its  autho 
rity,  and  partake  of  its  fortunes.  The  colony  at 
Marseilles  might  perceive  lightly,  or  not  at  all, 
the  sway  of  Phocis ;  while  the  islands  in  the 
Egean  Sea  could  hardly  attain  to  independence 
of  their  Athenian  origin.  Many  of  these  estab 
lishments  took  place  at  an  early  age ;  and  if 
there  were  defects  in  the  governments  of  the 
parent  states,  the  colonists  did  not  possess  phi 
losophy  or  experience  sufficient  to  correct  such 
evils  in  their  own  institutions,  even  if  they  had 


84  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

not  been,  by  other  causes,  deprived  of  the  pow 
er.  An  immediate  necessity,  connected  with 
the  support  of  life,  was  the  main  and  direct  in 
ducement  to  these  undertakings,  and  there  could 
hardly  exist  more  than  the  hope  of  a  successful 
imitation  of  institutions  with  which  they  were 
already  acquainted,  and  of  holding  an  equality 
with  their  neighbors,  in  the  course  of  improve 
ment.  The  laws  and  customs,  both  political  and 
municipal,  as  well  as  the  religious  worship  of 
the  parent  city,  were  transferred  to  the  colony ; 
and  the  parent  city  herself,  with  all  such  of  her 
colonies  as  were  not  too  far  remote  for  frequent 
intercourse,  and  common  sentiments,  would  ap 
pear  like  a  family  of  cities,  more  or  less  depen 
dent,  and  more  or  less  connected.  We  know 
how  imperfect  this  system  was,  as  a  system  of 
general  politics,  and  what  scope  it  gave  to  those 
mutual  dissentions  and  conflicts,  which  proved 
so  fatal  to  Greece, 

But  it  is  more  pertinent  to  our  present  pur 
pose,  to  observe  that  nothing  existed  in  the  cha 
racter  of  Grecian  emigrations,  or  in  the  spirit 
and  intelligence  of  the  emigrants,  likely  to  give 
a  new  and  important  direction  to  human  affairs, 
or  a  new  impulse  to  the  human  mind.  Their 
motives  were  not  high  enough,  their  views  were 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  85 

not  sufficiently  large  and  prospective.  They 
went  not  forth,  like  our  ancestors,  to  erect  sys 
tems  of  more  perfect  civil  liberty,  or  to  enjoy  a 
higher  degree  of  religious  freedom.  Above  all, 
there  was  nothing  in  the  religion  and  learning  of 
the  age,  that  could  either  inspire  high  purposes, 
or  give  the  ability  to  execute  them.  Whatever 
restraints  on  civil  liberty,  or  whatever  abuses  in 
religious  worship,  existed  at  the  time  of  our  fa 
thers'  emigration,  yet,  even  then,  all  was  light 
in  the  moral  and  mental  world,  in  comparison 
with  its  condition  in  most  periods  of  the  ancient 
states.  The  settlement  of  a  new  continent,  in* 
an  age  of  progressive  knowledge  and  improve 
ment,  could  not  but  do  more  than  merely  enlarge 
the  natural  boundaries  of  the  habitable  world. 
It  could  not  but  do  much  more,  even  than  ex 
tend  commerce  and  increase  wealth  among  the 
human  race.  We  see  how  this  event  has  acted, 
how  it  must  have  acted,  and  wonder  only  why  it 
did  not  act  sooner,  in  the  production  of  moral 
effects  on  the  state  of  human  knowledge,  the 
general  tone  of  human  sentiments,  and  the  pros 
pects  of  human  happiness  It  gave  to  civilized 
man,  not  only  a  new  continent  to  be  inhabited 
and  cultivated,  and  new  seas  to  be  explored,  but 
it  gave  him,  also,  a  new  range  for  his  thoughts, 


8G  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

new  objects  for  curiosity,  and  new  excitements 
to  knowledge  and  improvement. 

Roman  colonization  resembled,  far  less  than 
that  of  the  Greeks,  the  original  settlements  of 
this  country.  Power  and  dominion  were  the 
objects  of  Rome,  even  in  her  colonial  establish 
ments.  Her  whole  exterior  aspect  was,  for  cen 
turies,  hostile  and  terrific.  She  grasped  at  do 
minion,  from  India  to  Britain,  and  her  measures 
of  colonization  partook  of  the  character  of  her 
general  system.  Her  policy  was  military,  be 
cause  her  objects  were  power,  ascendency,  and 
subjugation.  Detachments  of  emigrants  from 
Rome,  incorporated  themselves  with,  and  go 
verned  the  original  inhabitants  of  conquered 
countries.  She  sent  citizens  where  she  had  first 
sent  soldiers ;  her  law  followed  her  sword. 
Her  colonies  were  a  sort  of  military  establish 
ment  ;  so  many  advanced  posts  in  the  career  of 
her  dominion.  A  governor  from  Rome  ruled 
the  new  colony  with  absolute  sway,  and  often 
with  unbounded  rapacity.  In  Sicily,  in  Gaul,  in 
Spain,  and  in  Asia,  the  power  of  Rome  prevail 
ed,  not  nominally  only,  but  really  and  effectually. 
Those  who  immediately  exercised  it  were  Ro 
man  ;  the  tone  and  tendency  of  its  administra 
tion,  Roman.  Rome  herself  continued  to  be  the 


BEAUTIES  OP  WEBSTER.  87 

heart  and  centre  of  the  great  system  which  she 
had  established.  Extortion  and  rapacity,  find 
ing  a  wide,  and  often  rich,  field  of  action  in  the 
provinces,  looked,  nevertheless,  to  the  banks  of 
the  Tiber,  as  the  scene  in  which  their  ill-gotten 
treasures  should  be  displayed  ;  or  if  a  spirit  of 
more  honest  acquisition  prevailed,  the  object, 
nevertheless,  was  ultimate  enjoyment  in  Rome 
itself.  If  our  own  history,  and  our  own  times, 
did  not  sufficiently  expose  the  inherent  and  in 
curable  evils  of  provincial  government,  we  might 
see  them  portrayed,  to  our  amazement,  in  the 
desolated  and  ruined  provinces  of  the  Roman 
empire.  We  might  hear  them,  in  a  voice  that 
terrifies  us,  in  those  strains  of  complaint  and  ac 
cusation  which  the  advocates  of  the  provinces 
poured  forth  in  the  Roman  Forum  —  "  Quas  res 
luxuries  in  flagitiis,  crudelitas  in  suppliciis,  ava- 
ritia  in  rapinis,  superbia  in  contumeliis,  efficere 
potuisset,  eas  omneis  sese  pertulisse." 

As  was  to  be  expected,  the  Roman  Provinces 
partook  of  the  fortunes  as  well  as  of  the  senti 
ments  and  general  character  of  the  seat  of  em 
pire.  They  lived  together  with  her,  they  flour 
ished  with  her,  and  fell  with  her.  The  branches 
were  lopped  away,  even  before  the  vast  and 
venerable  trunk  itself  fell  prostrate  to  the  earth. 


88  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

Nothing  had  proceeded  from  her  which  could 
support  itself,  and  bear  up  the  name  of  its  origin, 
when  her  own  sustaining  arm  should  be  enfee 
bled  or  withdrawn.  It  was  not  given  to  Rome 
to  see,  either  at  her  zenith,  or  in  her  decline,  a 
child  of  her  own,  distant  indeed,  and  indepen 
dent  of  her  control,  yet  speaking  her  language 
and  inheriting  her  blood,  springing  forward  to  a 
competition  with  her  own  power,  and  a  compa 
rison  with  her  own  great  renown.  She  saw  not 
a  vast  region  of  the  earth,  peopled  from  her 
stock,  full  of  states  and  political  communities, 
improving  upon  the  models  of  her  institutions, 
and  breathing,  in  fuller  measure,  the  spirit  which 
she  had  breathed  in  the  best  periods  of  her  ex 
istence  ;  enjoying  ,and  extending  her  arts  and 
her  literature ;  rising  rapidly  from  political 
childhood  to  manly  strength  and  independence ; 
her  offspring,  yet  now  her  equal ;  unconnected 
with  the  causes  which  might  affect  the  duration 
of  her  own  power  and  greatness ;  of  common 
origin,  but  not  linked  to  a  common  fate  ;  giving 
ample  pledge  that  her  name  should  not  be  for 
gotten  —  that  her  language  should  not  cease  to 
be  used  among  men ;  that  whatsoever  she  had 
done  for  human  knowledge  and  human  happi 
ness,  should  be  treasured  up  and  preserved; 


BEAUTIES  OP  WEBSTER.  89 

that  the  record  of  her  existence,  and  her  achieve 
ments,  should  not  be  obscured,  although,  in  the 
inscrutable  purposes  of  Providence,  it  might  be 
her  destiny  to  fall  from  opulence  and  splendor  ; 
although  the  time  might  come,  when  darkness 
should  settle  on  all  her  hills ;  when  foreign  or 
domestic  violence  should  overturn  her  altars  and 
her  temples ;  when  ignorance  and  despotism 
should  fill  the  places  where  Laws,  and  Arts,  and 
Liberty  had  flourished;  when  the  feet  of  barba 
rism  should  trample  on  the  tombs  of  her  consuls, 
and  the  walls  of  her  senate  house  and  forum 
echo  only  to  the  voice  of  savage  triumph.  She 
saw  not  this  glorious  vision,  to  inspire  and  forti 
fy  her  against  the  possible  decay  or  downfall  of 
her  power.  Happy  are  they,  who  in  our  day 
may  behold  it,  if  they  shall  contemplate  it  with 
the  sentiments  which  it  ought  to  inspire  ! 

PRINCIPLES  OF  GOVERNMENT. 

The  true  principle  of  a  free  and  popular  go 
vernment,  would  seem  to  be,  so  to  construct  it, 
as  to  give  to  all,  or  at  least  to  a  very  great  ma 
jority,  an  interest  in  its  preservation  :  to  found  it, 
as  other  things  are  founded,  on  men's  interest. 
The  stability  of  government  requires  that  those 
who  desire  its  continuance  should  be  more  pow- 
8* 


90  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

erful  than  those  who  desire  its  dissolution.  This 
power,  of  course,  is  not  always  to  be  measured 
by  mere  numbers.  Education,  wealth,  talents? 
are  all  parts  and  elements  of  the  general  aggre 
gate  of  power  ;  but  numbers,  nevertheless,  con 
stitute  ordinarily  the  most  important  considera 
tion,  unless  indeed  there  be  a  military  force,  in 
the  hands  of  the  few,  by  which  they  can  control 
the  many.  In  this  country  we  have  actually  ex 
isting  systems  of  government,  in  the  maintenance 
of  which,  it  should  seem,  a  great  majority,  both 
in  numbers  and  in  other  means  of  power  and  in 
fluence,  must  see  their  interest.  But  this  state 
of  things  is  not  brought  about  solely  by  written 
political  constitutions,  or  the  mere  manner  of  or 
ganizing  the  government ;  but  also  by  the  laws 
which  regulate  the  descent  and  transmission  of 
property.  The  freest  government,  if  it  could 
exist,  would  not  be  long  acceptable,  if  the  ten 
dency  of  the  laws  were  to  create  a  rapid  accu 
mulation  of  property  in  few  hands,  and  to  render 
the  great  mass  of  the  population  dependent  and 
pennyless.  In  such  a  case,  the  popular  power 
would  be  likely  to  break  in  upon  the  rights  of 
property,  or  else  the  influence  of  property  to 
limit  and  control  the  exercise  of  popular  power. 
Universal  suffrage,  for  example,  could  not  long 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  91 

exist  in  a  community,  where  there  was  great  ine 
quality  of  property.  The  holders  of  estates  would 
be  obliged,  in  such  case,  either,  in  some  way,  to 
restrain  the  right  of  suffrage  ;  or  else  such  right  of 
suffrage  would,  long  before,  divide  the  property. 
In  the  nature  of  things,  those  who  have  not  pro 
perty,  and  see  their  neighbors  possess  much  more 
than  they  think  them  to  need,  cannot  be  favora 
ble  to  laws  made  for  the  protection  of  property. 
When  this  class  becomes  numerous,  it  grows  cla 
morous.  It  looks  on  property  as  its  prey  and 
plunder,  and  is  naturally  ready,  at  all  times,  for 
violence  and  revolution. 

It  would  seem,  then,  to  be  the  part  of  political 
wisdom,  to  found  government  on  property  ;  and 
to  establish  such  distribution  of  property,  by  the 
laws  which  regulate  its  transmission  and  aliena 
tion,  as  to  interest  the  great  majority  of  society 
in  the  support  of  the  government.  This  is,  I 
imagine,  the  true  theory  and  the  actual  practice 
of  our  republican  institutions.  With  property 
divided,  as  we  have  it,  no  other  government  than 
that  of  a  republic  could  be  maintained,  even 
were  we  foolish  enough  to  desire  it.  There  is 
reason,  therefore,  to  expect  a  long  continuance 
of  our  systems.  Party  and  passion,  doubtless, 
may  prevail  at  times,  and  much  temporary  mis- 


92  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

chief  be  done.  Even  modes  and  forms  may  be 
changed,  and  perhaps  for  the  worse.  But  a  great 
revolution,  in  regard  to  property,  must  take 
place,  before  our  governments  can  be  moved 
from  their  republican  basis,  unless  they  be  vio 
lently  struck  off  by  military  power.  The  people 
possess  the  property,  more  emphatically  than  it 
could  ever  be  said  of  the  people  of  any  other 
country,  and  they  can  have  no  interest  to  over 
turn  a  government  which  protects  that  property 
by  equal  laws. 

Let  it  not  be  supposed,  that  this  state  of  things 
possesses  too  strong  tendencies  towards  the  pro 
duction  of  a  dead  and  uninteresting  level  in  so 
ciety.  Such  tendencies  are  sufficiently  counter 
acted  by  the  infinite  diversities  in  the  characters 
and  fortunes  of  individuals.  Talent,  activity,  in 
dustry,  and  enterprise,  tend  at  all  times  to  pro 
duce  inequality  and  distinction ;  and  there  is 
room  still  for  the  accumulation  of  wealth,  with 
its  great  advantages,  to  all  reasonable  and  useful 
extent.  It  has  been  often  urged  against  the  state 
of  society  in  America,  that  it  furnishes  no  class 
of  men  of  fortune  and  leisure.  This  may  be 
partly  true,  but  it  is  not  entirely  so  ;  and  the  evil* 
if  it  be  one,  would  affect  rather  the  progress  of 
taste  and  literature,  than  the  general  prosperity 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  93 

of  the  people.  But  the  promotion  of  taste  and 
literature  cannot  be  primary  objects  of  political 
institutions  ;  and  if  they  could,  it  might  be  doubt 
ed,  whether,  in  the  long  course  of  things,  as  much 
is  not  gained  by  a  wide  diffusion  of  general  know 
ledge,  as  is  lost  by  abridging  the  number  of  those 
whom  fortune  and  leisure  enable  to  devote  them 
selves  exclusively  to  scientific  and  literary  pur 
suits.  However  this  may  be,  it  is  to  be  consider 
ed  that  it  is  the  spirit  of  our  system  to  be  equal, 
and  general,  and  if  there  be  particular  disadvan 
tages  incident  to  this,  they  are  far  more  than 
counterbalanced  by  the  benefits  which  weigh 
against  them.  The  important  concerns  of  socie 
ty  are  generally  conducted,  in  all  countries,  by 
the  men  of  business  and  practical  ability  ;  and 
even  in  matters  of  taste  and  literature,  the  advan 
tages  of  mere  leisure  are  liable  to  be  overrated. 
If  there  exists  adequate  means  of  education,  and 
the  love  of  letters  be  excited,  that  love  will  find 
its  way  to  the  object  of  its  desire,  through  the 
crowd  and  pressure  of  the  most  busy  society. 

LOVE  OF  COUNTRY. 

We  do  not  read  even  of  the  discovery  of  this 
continent,  without  feeling  something  of  a  per 
sonal  interest  in  the  event ;  without  being  re- 


94  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

minded  how  much  it  has  affected  our  own  for 
tunes,  and  our  own  existence.  It  is  more  impos 
sible  for  us,  therefore,  than  for  others,  to  contem 
plate  with  unaffected  minds  that  interesting,  I 
may  say,  that  most  touching  and  pathetic  scene, 
when  the  great  Discoverer  of  America  stood  on 
the  deck  of  his  shattered  bank,  the  shades  of 
night  falling  on  the  sea,  yet  no  man  sleeping ; 
tossed  on  the  billows  of  an  unknown  ocean,  yet 
the  stronger  billows  of  alternate  hope  and  des 
pair  tossing  his  own  troubled  thoughts  ;  extend 
ing  forward  his  harrassed  frame,  straining  west 
ward  his  anxious  and  eager  eyes,  till  Heaven  at 
last  granted  him  a  moment  of  rapture  and  ecsta 
sy,  in  blessing  his  vision  with  the  sight  of  the 
unknown  world. 

Nearer  to  our  times,  more  closely  connected 
with  our  fates,  and  therefore  still  more  interest 
ing  to  our  feelings  and  affections,  is  the  settle 
ment  of  our  own  country  by  colonists  from  Eng 
land.  We  cherish  every  memory  of  these  wor 
thy  ancestors ;  we  celebrate  their  patience  and 
fortitude  ;  we  admire  their  daring  enterprise ; 
we  teach  our  children  to  venerate  their  piety ; 
and  we  are  justly  proud  of  being  descended  from 
men,  who  have  set  the  world  an  example  of 
founding  civil  institutions  on  the  great  arid  uni- 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  95 

ted  principles  of  human  freedom  and  human 
knowledge.  To  us,  their  children,  the  story  of 
their  labors  and  sufferings  can  never  be  without 
its  interest.  We  shall  not  stand  unmoved  on  the 
shore  of  Plymouth,  while  the  sea  continues  to 
wash  it ;  nor  will  our  brethren  in  another  early 
and  ancient  colony,  forget  the  place  of  its  first 
establishment,  till  their  river  shall  cease  to  flow 
by  it.  No  vigor  of  youth,  no  maturity  of  man 
hood,  will  lead  the  nation  to  forget  the  spots 
where  its  infancy  was  cradled  arid  defended. 

ELOQUENCE    OF    ADAMS. 

"  Let  us  pause !  This  step,  once  taken,  can 
not  be  retraced.  This  resolution,  once  passed, 
will  cut  off  all  hope  of  reconciliation.  If  success 
attend  the  arms  of  England,  we  shall  then  be  no 
longer  colonies,  with  charters,  and  with  privile 
ges;  these  will  all  be  forfeited  by  this  act;  and 
we  shall  be  in  the  condition  of  other  conquered 
people,  at  the  mercy  of  the  conquerors.  For 
ourselves,  we  may  be  ready  to  run  the  hazard ; 
but  are  we  ready  to  carry  the  country  to  that 
length  ?  Is  success  so  probable  as  to  justify  it  2 
Where  is  the  military,  where  the  naval  power, 
by  which  we  are  to  resist  the  whole  strength  of 
the  arm  of  England,  for  she  will  exert  that 


96  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

strength  to  the  utmost]  Can  we  rely  on  the 
constancy  and  perseverance  of  the  people;  or 
will  they  not  act,  as  the  people  of  other  countries 
have  acted,  and,  wearied  with  a  long  war,  submit, 
in  the  end,  to  a  worse  oppression  ?  While  we 
stand  on  our  old  ground,  and  insist  on  redress  of 
grievances,  we  know  we  are  right,  and  are  not 
answerable  for  consequences.  Nothing,  then, 
can  be  imputable  to  us.  But  if  we  now  change 
our  object,  carry  our  pretensions  farther,  and  set 
up  for  absolute  independence,  we  shall  lose  the 
sympathy  of  mankind.  We  shall  no  longer  be 
defending  what  we  possess,  but  struggling  for 
something  which  we  never  did  possess,  and 
which  we  have  solemnly  and  uniformly  disclaim 
ed  all  intention  of  pursuing,  from  the  very  out 
set  of  the  troubles.  Abandoning  thus  our  old 
ground  of  resistance  only  to  arbitrary  acts  of 
oppression,  the  nations  will  believe  the  whole  to 
have  been  mere  pretence,  and  they  will  look  on 
us,  not  as  injured,  but  as  ambitious,  subjects.  I 
shudder,  before  this  responsibility.  It  will  be 
on  us,  if  relinquishing  the  ground  we  have  stood 
on  so  long,  and  stood  on  so  safely,  we  now  pro 
claim  independence,  and  carry  on  the  war  for 
that  object,  while  these  cities  burn,  these  pleasant 
fields  whiten  and  bleach  with  the  bones  of  their 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  97 

owners,  and  these  streams  run  blood.  It  will  be 
upon  us,  it  will  be  upon  us,  if  failing  to  maintain 
this  unseasonable  and  ill-judged  declaration,  a 
sterner  despotism,  maintained  by  military  power, 
shall  be  established  over  our  posterity,  when  we 
ourselves,  given  up  by  an  exhausted,  a  harassed, 
a  misled  people,  shall  have  expiated  our  rash 
ness,  and  atoned  for  our  presumption  on  the 
scaffold." 

It  was  for  Mr.  Adams  to  reply  to  arguments 
like  these.  We  know  his  opinions,  and  we 
know  his  character.  He  would  commence  with 
his  accustomed  directness  and  earnestness. 

"  Sink  or  swim,  live  or  die,  survive  or  perish, 
I  give  my  hand  and  my  heart  to  this  vote.  It  is 
true,  indeed,  that  in  the  beginning,  we  aimed 
not  at  independence.  But  there's  a  Divinity 
which  shapes  our  ends.  The  injustice  of  Eng 
land  has  driven  us  to  arms  —  and,  blinded  to  her 
own  interest  for  our  good,  she  has  obstinately 
persisted,  till  independence  is  now  within  our 
grasp.  We  have  but  to  reach  forth  to  it,  and  it 
is  ours.  Why  then  should  we  defer  the  decla 
ration1?  Is  any  man  so  weak  as  now  to  hope  for 
a  reconciliation  with  England,  which  shall  leave 
either  safety  to  the  country  and  its  liberties,  or 
safety  to  his  own  life,  and  his  own  honor?  Are 
9 


98  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

not  you,  sir,  who  sit  in  that  chair,  is  not  he,  our 
venerable  colleague  near  you,  are  you  not  both 
already  the  proscribed  and  predestined  objects 
of  punishment  and  of  vengeance  ?  Cut  off  from 
all  hope  of  royal  clemency,  what  are  you,  what 
can  you  be,  while  the  power  of  England  remains, 
but  outlaws  ]  If  we  postpone  independence,  do 
we  mean  to  carry  on,  or  to  give  up  the  war  ]  Do 
we  mean  to  submit  to  the  measures  of  parlia 
ment,  Boston  port  bill  and  all  ?  Do  we  mean 
to  submit,  and  consent  that  we,  ourselves,  shall 
be  ground  to  powder,  and  our  country  and  its 
rights  trodden  down  in  the  dust  ]  I  know  we 
do  not  mean  to  submit.  We  never  shall  submit. 
Do  we  intend  to  violate  that  most  solemn  obli 
gation  ever  entered  into  by  men  ;  that  plighting, 
before  God,  of  our  sacred  honor  to  Washington, 
when  putting  him  forth  to  incur  the  dangers  of 
war,  as  well  as  the  political  hazards  of  the  times, 
we  promised  to  adhere  to  him,  in  every  extremi 
ty,  with  our  fortunes  and  our  lives  ]  I  know 
there  is  not  a  man  here,  who  would  not  rather 
see  a  general  conflagration  sweep  over  the  land, 
or  an  earthquake  sink  it,  than  one  jot  or  tittle  of 
that  plighted  faith  fall  to  the  ground.  For  myself, 
having,  twelve  months  ago,  in  this  place,  moved 
you,  that  George  Washington  be  appointed 


s 

BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  99 

commander  of  the  forces,  raised  or  to  be  raised, 
for  defence  of  American  liberty,  may  my  right 
hand  forget  her  cunning,  and  my  tongue  cleave 
to  the  roof  of  my  mouth,  if  I  hesitate  or  waver 
in  the  support  I  give  him.  The  war,  then,  must 
go  on.  We  must  fight  it  through.  And  if  the 
war  must  go  on,  why  put  off  longer  the  Decla 
ration  of  Independence  ?  That  measure  will 
strengthen  us.  It  will  give  us  character  abroad. 
The  nations  will  then  treat  with  us,  which  they 
never  can  do  while  we  acknowledge  ourselves 
subjects,  in  arms  against  our  sovereign.  Nay,  I 
maintain  that  England,  herself,  will  sooner  treat 
for  peace  with  us  on  the  footing  of  indepen 
dence,  than  consent,  by  repealing  her  acts,  to 
acknowledge  that  her  whole  conduct  towards  us 
has  been  a  course  of  injustice  and  oppression. 
Her  pride  will  be  less  wounded,  by  submitting 
to  that  course  of  things  which  now  predestinates 
our  independence,  than  by  yielding  the  point  in 
controversy  to  her  rebellious  subjects.  The  for 
mer  she  would  regard  as  the  result  of  fortune  ; 
the  latter  she  would  feel  as  her  own  deep  dis 
grace.  Why  then,  why  then,  sir,  do  we  not,  as 
soon  as  possible,  change  this  from  a  civil  to  a 
national  war]  And,  since  we  must  fight  it 


100  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

through,  why  not  put  ourselves  in  a  state  to 
enjoy  all  the  benefits  of  victory,  if  we  gain  the 
victory  ? 

"  If  we  fail,  it  can  be  no  worse  for  us.  But 
we  shall  not  fail.  The  cause  will  raise  up  ar 
mies  ;  the  cause  will  create  navies.  The  people, 
the  people,  if  we  are  true  to  them,  will  carry  us, 
and  will  carry  themselves,  gloriously,  through 
this  struggle.  I  care  not  how  fickle  other  people 
have  been  found.  I  know  the  people  of  these 
colonies,  and  I  know  that  resistance  to  British 
aggression  is  deep  and  settled  in  their  hearts, 
and  cannot  be  eradicated.  Every  colony,  indeed, 
has  expressed  its  willingness  to  follow,  if  we  but 
take  the  lead.  Sir,  the  declaration  will  inspire 
the  people  with  increased  courage.  Instead  of 
a  long  and  bloody  war  for  restoration  of  privi 
leges,  for  redress  of  grievances,  for  chartered 
immunities,  held  under  a  British  king,  set  before 
them  the  glorious  object  of  entire  independence, 
and  it  will  breathe  into  them  anew  the  breath  of 
life.  Read  this  declaration  at  the  head  of  the 
army  —  every  sword  will  be  drawn  from  its 
scabbard,  and  the  solemn  vow  uttered  to  main 
tain  it,  or  to  perish  on  the  bed  of  honor.  Pub 
lish  it  from  the  pulpit;  religion  will  approve  it, 
and  the  love  of  religious  liberty  will  cling  round 
it,  resolved  to  stand  with  it,  or  fall  with  it.  Send 


BEAUTIES  97J,WEfJ9TE&.  101 

it  to  the  public  halls  ;" prbclfliftf  ikthetf'e  $!&  'ihejin 
hear  it,  who  heard  t he  first" rbarW  iile^cWy'S 
cannon  ;  let  them  see  it,  who  saw  their  brothers 
and  their  sons  fall  on  the  field  of  Bunker  Hill, 
and  in  the  streets  of  Lexington  and  Concord, 
and  the  very  walls  will  cry  out  in  its  support. 

"  Sir,  I  know  the  uncertainty  of  human  affairs, 
but  I  see,  I  see  clearly  through  this  day's  busi 
ness.  You  arid  I,  indeed,  may  rue  it.  We  may 
not  live  to  the  time  when  this  declaration  shall 
be  made  good.  We  may  die ;  die  colonists ; 
die  slaves;  die,  it  may  be,  ignominiously,  and 
on  the  scaffold.  Be  it  so.  Be  it  so.  If  it  be 
the  pleasure  of  Heaven  that  my  country  shall 
require  the  poor  offering  of  my  life,  the  victim 
shall  be  ready,  at  the  appointed  hour  of  sacrifice, 
come  when  that  hour  may.  But  while  I  do  live, 
let  me  have  a  country,  or,  at  least,  the  hope  of 
a  country,  and  that  a  free  country. 

"But  whatever  may  be  our  fate,  be  assured,  be 
assured,  that  this  declaration  will  stand.  It  may 
cost  treasure,  and  it  may  cost  blood ;  but  it  will 
stand,  and  it  will  richly  compensate  for  both. 
Through  the  thick  gloom  of  the  present,  I  see 
the  brightness  of  the  future,  as  the  sun  in  hea 
ven.  We  shall  make  this  a  glorious,  an  immor 
tal  day.  When  we  are  in  our  graves,  our  chil- 
9* 


102       ,\  ^EAUTLSfr -OF  WEBSTER. 

drerk  will  Ijonor^it  w  They  wi^U  celebrate  it,  with 
tfc&nkagi&iii£,^ith>  festivity,-  jyfth  bonfires,  and 
illuminations.  On  its  annual  return,  they  will 
shed  tears,  copious,  gushing  tears,  not  of  subjec 
tion  and  slavery,  not  of  agony  and  distress,  but  of 
exultation,  of  gratitude,  and  of  joy.  Sir,  before 
God,  I  believe  the  hour  is  come.  My  judgment 
approves  this  measure,  and  my  whole  heart  is  in 
it.  All  that  I  have,  and  all  that  I  am,  and  all  that 
I  hope  in  this  life,  I  am  now  ready  here  to  stake 
upon  it;  and  I  leave  off,  as  I  begun,  that  live  or 
die,  survive  or  perish,  I  am  for  the  declaration. 
It  is  my  living  sentiment,  and,  by  the  blessing 
of  God,  it  shall  be  my  dying  sentiment ;  inde 
pendence  now ;  and  INDEPENDENCE  FOR  EVER." 
And  so  that  day  shall  be  honored,  illustrious 
prophet  and  patriot !  so  that  day  shall  be  honor 
ed,  and  as  often  as  it  returns,  thy  renown  shall 
come  along  with  it,  and  the  glory  of  thy  life,  like 
the  day  of  thy  death,  shall  not  fail  from  the  re 
membrance  of  men. 

ASSUMED    LITERARY    CHARACTER. 

Literature  sometimes,  and  pretensions  to  it 
much  oftener,  disgusts,  by  appearing  to  hang 
loosely  on  the  character,  like  something  foreign 
or  extraneous,  not  a  part,  but  an  ill-adjusted  ap- 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  103 

pendage  ;  or,  by  seeming  to  overload  and  weigh 
it  down,  by  its  unsightly  bulk,  like  the  produc 
tions  of  bad  taste  in  architecture,  where  there  is 
massy  and  cumbrous  ornament,  without  strength 
or  solidity  of  column.  This  has  exposed  learn 
ing,  and,  especially,  classical  learning,  to  re 
proach.  Men  have  seen  that  it  might  exist, 
without  mental  superiority,  without  vigor,  with 
out  good  taste,  and  without  utility.  But,  in  such 
cases,  classical  learning  has  only  not  inspired 
natural  talent;  or,  at  most,  it  has  but  made  ori 
ginal  feebleness  of  intellect,  and  natural  blunt- 
ness  of  perception,  something  more  conspicuous. 
The  question,  after  all,  if  it  be  a  question,  is, 
whether  literature,  ancient  as  well  as  modern, 
does  not  assist  a  good  understanding,  improve 
natural  good  taste,  add  polished  armor  to  native 
strength,  and  render  its  possessor,  not  only  more 
capable  of  deriving  private  happiness  from  con 
templation  and'  reflection,  but  more  accomplish 
ed,  also,  for  action  in  the  affairs  of  life,  and,  espe 
cially,  for  public  action.  Those  whose  memo 
ries  we  now  honor,  were  learned  men ;  but  their 
learning  was  kept  in  its  proper  place,  and  made 
subservient  to  the  uses  and  objects  of  life.  They 
were  scholars,  not  common,  nor  superficial ;  but 
their  scholarship  was  so  in  keeping  with  their 


104  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

character,  so  blended  and  inwrought,  that  care 
less  observers,  or  bad  judges,  not  seeing  an  os 
tentatious  display  of  it,  might  infer  that  it  did 
not  exist;  forgetting,  or  not  knowing,  that  clas 
sical  learning,  in  men  who  act  in  conspicuous 
public  stations,  perform  duties  which  exercise  the 
faculty  of  writing,  or  address  popular,  delibera 
tive,  or  judicial  bodies,  is  often  felt,  where  it  is 
little  seen,  and  sometimes  felt  more  effectually, 
because  it  is  not  seen  at  all. 

ADAMS. 

We  did  not,  we  could  not  here,  forget  our  ve 
nerable  neighbor  of  Quincy.  We  knew  that  we 
were  standing,  at  a  time  of  high  and  palmy  pros 
perity,  where  he  had  stood,  in  the  hour  of  ut 
most  peril;  that  we  saw  nothing  but  liberty  arid 
security,  where  he  had  met  the  frown  of  power  ; 
that  we  were  enjoying  every  thing,  where  he 
had  hazarded  every  thing  ;  and  just  and  sincere 
plaudits  rose  to  his  name,  from  the  crowds  which 
filled  this  area,  and  hung  over  these  galleries. 
He  whose  grateful  duty  it  was  to  speak  to  us,  on 
that  day,  of  the  virtues  of  our  fathers,  had,  in 
deed,  admonished  us  that  time  and  years  were 
about  to  level  his  venerable  frame  with  the  dust. 
But  he  bade  us  hope,  that  "  the  sound  of  a  na- 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  105 

tion's  joy,  rushing  from  our  cities,  ringing  from 
our  valleys,  echoing  from  our  hills,  might  yet 
break  the  silence  of  his  aged  ear ;  that  the  rising 
blessings  of  grateful  millions  might  yet  visit,  with 
glad  light,  his  decaying  vision."  Alas  !  that  vi 
sion  was  then  closing  for  ever.  Alas  !  the  silence 
which  was  then  settling  on  that  aged  ear,  was  an 
everlasting  silence  !  For,  lo  !  in  the  very  mo 
ment  of  our  festivities,  his  freed  spirit  ascended 
to  God  who  gave  it !  Human  aid  and  human 
solace  terminate  at  the  grave  ;  or  we  would 
gladly  have  borne  him  upward,  on  a  nation's 
outspread  hands ;  we  would  have  accompanied 
him,  and  with  the  blessings  of  millions  and  the 
prayers  of  millions,  commended  him  to  the  Di 
vine  favor. 

THE  DUTY  OF  CITIZENS. 

And  now,  fellow-citizens,  let  us  not  retire  from 
this  occasion,  without  a  deep  and  solemn  convic 
tion  of  the  duties  which  have  devolved  upon  us. 
This  lovely  land,  this  glorious  liberty,  these  be 
nign  institutions,  the  dear  purchase  of  our  fathers, 
are  ours  ;  ours  to  enjoy,  ours  to  preserve,  ours 
to  transmit.  Generations  past,  and  generations 
to  come,  hold  us  responsible  for  the  sacred  trust. 
Our  fathers,  from  behind,  admonish  us,  with 


106  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

their  anxious  paternal  voices  —  posterity  calls  out 
to  us,  from  the  bosom  of  the  future  —  the  world 
turns  hither  its  solicitous  eye  ;  —  all,  all  conjure 
us  to  act  wisely  and  faithfully  —  in  the  relation 
which  we  sustain.  We  can  never,  indeed,  pay 
the  debt  which  is  upon  us  ;  but  by  virtue,  by  mo 
rality,  by  religion,  by  the  cultivation  of  every 
good  principle  and  every  good  habit,  we  may 
hope  to  enjoy  the  blessing,  through  our  day,  and 
leave  it  unimpaired  to  our  children.  Let  us 
feel  deeply  how  much,  of  what  we  are  and  of 
what  we  possess,  we  owe  to  this  liberty,  and 
these  institutions  of  government.  Nature  has, 
indeed,  given  us  a  soil,  which  yields  bounteously 
to  the  hand  of  industry  ;  the  mighty  and  fruitful 
ocean  is  before  us,  and  the  skies  over  our  heads 
shed  health  and  vigor.  But  what  are  lands,  and 
seas,  and  skies,  to  civilized  man,  without  society, 
without  knowledge,  without  morals,  without  re 
ligious  culture;  and  how  can  these  be  enjoyed, 
in  all  their  extent,  and  all  their  excellence,  but 
under  the  protection  of  wise  institutions  and  a 
free  government  ]  Fellow- citizens,  there  is  not 
one  of  us,  there  is  not  one  of  us  here  present, 
who  does  not,  at  this  moment,  and  at  every  mo 
ment,  experience,  in  his  own  condition,  and  in 
the  condition  of  those  most  near  and  dear  to  him, 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  107 

the  influence  and  the  benefits  of  this  liberty,  and 
these  institutions.  Let  us  then  acknowledge  the 
blessing,  let  us  feel  it  deeply  and  powerfully,  let 
us  cherish  a  strong  affection  for  it,  and  resolve 
to  maintain  and  perpetuate  it.  The  blood  of  our 
fathers,  let  it  not  have  been  shed  in  vain  ;  the 
great  hope  of  posterity,  let  it  not  be  blasted. 

SITUATION  OF  AMERICA. 

It  is  not  to  inflate  national  vanity,  nor  to  swell 
a  light  and  empty  feeling  of  self-importance ;  but 
it  is  that  we  may  judge  justly  of  our  situation, 
and  of  our  own  duties,  that  I  earnestly  urge  this 
consideration  of  our  position  and  our  character, 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  It  cannot  be 
denied,  but  by  those  who  would  dispute  against 
the  sun,  that  with  America,  and  in  America,  a 
new  era  commences  in  human  affairs.  This  era 
is  distinguished  by  free  representative  govern 
ments,  by  entire  religious  liberty,  by  improved 
systems  of  national  intercourse,  by  a  newly-awa 
kened  and  an  unconquerable  spirit  of  free  inqui 
ry,  and  by  a  diffusion  of  knowledge  through  the 
community,  such  as  has  been  before  altogether 
unknown  or  unheard  of.  America,  America, 
our  country,  fellow-citizens,  our  own  dear  and 
native  land,  is  inseparably  connected,  fast  bound 


108  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

up,  in  fortune  and  by  fate,  with  these  great  in 
terests  ;  if  they  fall,  we  fall  with  them  ;  if  they 
stand,  it  will  be  because  we  have  upholden  them. 
Let  us  contemplate,  then,  this  connexion,  which 
binds  the  prosperity  of  others  to  our  own ;  and 
let  us  manfully  discharge  all  the  duties  which  it 
imposes.  If  we  cherish  the  virtues  and  the  prin 
ciples  of  our  fathers,  Heaven  will  assist  us  to 
carry  on  the  work  of  human  liberty  and  human 
happiness.  Auspicious  omens  cheer  us.  Great 
examples  are  before  us.  Our  own  firmament 
now  shines  brightly  upon  our  path.  WASHING 
TON  is  in  the  clear  upper  sky.  These  other  stars 
have  now  joined  the  American  constellation  ; 
they  circle  round  their  centre,  and  the  heavens 
beam  with  new  light.  Beneath  this  illumina 
tion,  let  us  walk  the  course  of  life,  and  at  its 
close  devoutly  commend  our  beloved  country, 
the  common  parent  of  us  all,  to  the  Divine  be 
nignity. 

IMPORTANCE    OF    JUSTICE. 

The  respondent  has  as  deep  a  stake,  no  doubt, 
in  this  trial,  as  he  can  well  have  in  any  thing 
which  does  not  affect  his  life.  Regard  for  repu 
tation,  love  of  honorable  character,  affection  for 
those  who  must  suffer  with  him,  if  he  suffers,  and 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  109 

who  will  feel  your  sentence  of  conviction,  if  you 
should  pronounce  one,  fall  on  their  heads,  as  it 
falls  on  his ;  cannot  but  excite  in  his  breast  an 
anxiety  which  nothing  could  well  increase,  and 
nothing  but  a  consciousness  of  upright  intention, 
could  enable  him  to  endure.  Yet,  sir,  a  few  years 
will  carry  him  far  beyond  the  reach  of  the  con 
sequences  of  this  trial.  Those  same  years  will 
bear  away  also,  in  their  rapid  flight,  those  who 
prosecute,  and  those  who  judge  him.  But  the 
community  remains.  The  commonweath,  we 
trust,  will  be  perpetual.  She  is  yet  in  her  youth, 
as  a  free  and  independent  state,  and,  in  analogy 
to  the  life  of  individuals,  may  be  said  to  be  in 
that  period  of  existence,  when  principles  of  ac 
tion  are  adopted,  and  character  is  formed.  The 
respondent  will  not  be  the  principal  sufferer,  if 
he  should  here  fall  a  victim  to  charges  of  unde 
fined  and  undefinable  offences,  to  loose  notions 
of  constitutional  law,  or  novel  rules  of  evidence. 
By  the  necessary  retribution  of  things,  the  evil 
of  such  a  course  will  fall  most  heavily  on  the  state 
which  should  pursue  it,  by  shaking  its  character 
for  justice,  and  impairing  its  principles  of  consti 
tutional  liberty. 


10 


110  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

EXTERNAL    NATURE. 

The  visible  and  tangible  creation  in  which  we 
are  introduced  at  our  birth,  is  not,  in  all  its  parts, 
fixed  and  stationary.  Motion,  or  change  of  place, 
regular,  or  occasional,  belongs  to  all  or  most  of 
the  things  which  are  around  us.  Animal  life 
every  where  moves;  the  earth  itself  has  its  mo 
tion,  and  its  complexities  of  motion  ;  the  ocean 
heaves  and  subsides  ;  rivers  run  lingering  or 
rushing  to  the  sea ;  and  the  nir  which  we  breathe, 
moves  and  acts  with  mighty  power.  Motion, 
thus  pertaining  to  the  physical  objects  which 
surround  us,  is  the  exhaustless  fountain  whence 
philosophy  draws  the  means  by  which,  in  various 
degrees,  and  endless  forms,  natural  agencies, 
and  the  tendencies  of  inert  matter,  are  brought 
to  the  succor  and  assistance  of  human  strength. 
It  is  the  object  of  mechanical  contrivance  to 
modify  motion,  to  produce  it  in  new  forms,  to 
direct  it  to  new  purposes  ;  to  multiply  its  uses  ; 
by  means  of  it  to  do  better  that  which  human 
strength  could  do  without  its  aid —  and  to  per 
form  that,  also,  which  such  strength,  unassisted 
by  art,  could  not  perform. 

MATHEMATICAL    SCIENCE. 

But,    doubtless,   the    reasoning   faculty,    the 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  m 

mind,  is  the  leading  characteristic  attribute  of 
the  human  race.  By  the  exercise  of  this,  he 
arrives  at  the  knowledge  of  the  properties  of 
natural  bodies.  This  is  science,  properly  and 
emphatically  so  called.  It  is  the  science  of  pure 
mathematics  ;  and,  in  the  high  branches  of  this 
science,  lies  the  true  sublime  of  human  acquisi 
tion.  If  any  attainments  deserve  that  epithet, 
it  is  the  knowledge,  which,  from  the  mensura 
tion  of  the  minutest  dust  of  the  balance,  pro 
ceeds  on  the  rising  scale  of  material  bodies 
every  where  weighing,  every  where  measuring, 
every  where  detecting  and  explaining  the  laws 
of  force  and  motion  ;  penetrating  into  the  secret 
principles  which  hold  the  universe  of  God  to 
gether,  and  balancing  world  against  world,  and 
system  against  system.  When  we  seek  to  ac 
company  those,  who  pursue  their  studies,  at  once 
so  high,  so  vast,  and  so  exact;  when  we  arrive  at 
the  discoveries  of  Newton,  which  pour  in  day  on 
the  works  of  God,  as  if  a  second  Jiat  for  light  had 
gone  forth  from  his  own  mouth  ;  when,  farther,  we 
attempt  to  follow  those  who  set  out  where  New 
ton  paused,  making  his  goal  their  starting-place, 
and  proceeding,  with  demonstration  upon  de 
monstration,  and  discovery  upon  discovery,  bring 
new  worlds,  and  new  systems  of  worlds,  within 


112  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

the  limits  of  the  known  universe,  failing  to  learn 
all,  only  because  all  is  infinite  ;  however,  we  say 
of  man,  in  admiration  of  his  physical  structure, 
that  "  in  form  and  moving  he  is  express  and  ad 
mirable  ;"  it  is  here,  and  here  without  irrever 
ence,  we  may  exclaim,  "  in  apprehension,  how 
like  a  God  !"  It  is  to  be  remembered,  that  pure 
mathematics  lie  at  the  foundation  of  mechanical 
philosophy,  and  it  is  ignorance,  only,  which  can 
speak  or  think  of  that  sublime  science  as  useless 
research,  or  barren  speculation. 

CHARACTER    OF    A    MURDERER. 

Truly,  here  is  a  new  lesson  for  painters  and 
poets.  Whoever  shall  hereafter  draw  the  por 
trait  of  murder,  if  he  will  show  it  as  it  has  been 
exhibited  in  an  example,  where  such  example 
was  last  to  have  been  looked  for,  in  the  very 
bosom  of  our  New  England  Society,  let  him  not 
give  it  the  grim  visage  of  Moloch,  the  brow  knit 
ted  by  revenge,  the  face  black  with  settled  hate, 
and  the  blood-shot  eye,  emitting  livid  fires  of 
malice.  Let  him  draw,  rather,  a  decorous, 
smooth-faced,  bloodless  demon ;  a  picture  in 
repose,  rather  than  in  action  ;  not  so  much  an 
example  of  human  nature  in  its  depravity,  and 
in  its  paroxysms  of  crime,  as  an  infernal  nature, 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  H3 

a  fiend  in  the  ordinary  display  and  development 
of  his  character. 

DESCRIPTION    OF    A    MURDER. 

The  deed  was  executed  with  a  degree  of  self- 
possession  and  steadiness,  equal  to  the  wicked 
ness  with  which  it  was  planned.  Deep  sleep 
had  fallen  on  the  destined  victim,  and  on  all 
beneath  his  roof.  A  healthful  old  man,  to  whom 
sleep  was  sweet ;  the  first  sound  slumbers  of  the 
night  held  him  in  their  soft  but  strong  embrace. 
The  assassin  enters  through  a  window  already 
prepared,  into  an  unoccupied  apartment.  With 
noiseless  foot  he  paces  the  lonely  hall,  half  light 
ed  by  the  moon ;  he  winds  up  the  ascent  of  the 
stairs,  and  reaches  the  door  of  the  chamber.  Of 
this  he  moves  the  lock,  by  soft  and  continued 
pressure,  till  it  turns  on  its  hinges  without  noise, 
and  he  enters,  and  beholds  his  victim  before  him. 
The  room  was  uncommonly  open  to  the  admis 
sion  of  light.  The  face  of  the  innocent  sleeper 
was  turned  from  the  murderer,  and  the  beams 
of  the  moon,  resting  on  the  gray  locks  of  his 
aged  temple,  showed  him  where  to  strike.  The 
fatal  blow  is  given  !  and  the  victim  passes,  with 
out  a  struggle  or  a  motion,  from  the  repose  of 
sleep  to  the  repose  of  death  !  It  is  the  assassin's 
10* 


114  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

purpose  to  make  sure  work  ;  and  he  yet  plies 
the  dagger,  though  it  was  obvious  that  life  had 
been  destroyed  by  the  blow  of  the  bludgeon. 
He  even  raises  the  aged  arm,  that  he  may  not 
fail  in  his  aim  at  the  heart,  and  replaces  it  again 
over  the  wounds  of  the  poniard  !  To  finish  the 
picture,  he  explores  the  wrist  for  the  pulse !  He 
feels  for  it,  and  ascertains  that  it  beats  no  longer! 
It  is  accomplished  —  the  deed  is  done.  He  re 
treats — retraces  his  steps  to  the  window,  passes 
out  through  it  as  he  came  in,  and  escapes.  He 
has  done  the  murder ;  no  eye  has  seen  him  — 
no  ear  has  heard  him.  The  secret  is  his  own, 
and  it  is  safe! 

CONSCIENCE. 

Ah  !  gentlemen,  that  was  a  dreadful  mistake. 
Such  a  secret  is  safe  nowhere.  The  whole  cre 
ation  of  Grod  has  neither  nook  nor  corner  where 
the  guilty  can  bestow  it,  and  say  it  is  safe.  Not 
to  speak  of  that  eye  which  glances  through  all 
disguises,  and  beholds  every  thing,  as  in  the 
splendor  of  noon  —  such  secrets  of  guilt  are 
never  safe  from  detection,  even  by  men.  True 
it  is,  generally  speaking,  that  "murder  will  out." 
True  it  is,  indeed,  that  Providence  has  so  ordain 
ed,  and  doth  so  govern  things,  that  those  who 


BEAUTIES  OP  WEBSTER.  H5 

break  the  great  law  of  heaven,  by  shedding 
man's  blood,  seldom  succeed  in  avoiding  disco 
very.  Especially,  in  a  case  exciting  so  much 
attention  as  this,  discovery  must  come,  and  will 
come,  sooner  or  later.  A  thousand  eyes  turn 
at  once  to  explore  every  man,  everything,  every 
circumstance  connected  with  the  time  and  place; 
a  thousand  ears  catch  every  whisper  ;  a  thousand 
excited  minds  intensely  dwell  on  the  scene, 
shedding  all  their  light,  and  ready  to  kindle  the 
slightest  circumstance  into  a  blaze  of  discovery. 
Meantime,  the  guilty  soul  cannot  keep  its  own 
secret.  It  is  false  to  itself;  or,  rather,  it  feels  an 
irresistible  impulse  of  conscience  to  be  true  to 
itself.  It  labors  under  its  guilty  possession,  and 
knows  not  what  to  do  with  it.  The  human  heart 
was  not  made  for  the  residence  of  such  an  in 
habitant.  It  finds  itself  preyed  on  by  a  torment, 
which  it  dares  not  acknowledge  to  God  nor  man. 
A  vulture  is  devouring  it,  and  it  can  ask  no  sym 
pathy  or  assistance,  either  from  heaven  or  earth. 
The  secret  which  the  murderer  possesses,  soon 
comes  to  possess  him  ;  and,  like  the  evil  spirits 
of  which  we  read,  it  overcomes  him,  and  leads 
him  whithersoever  it  will.  He  feels  it  beating 
at  his  heart,  rising  to  his  throat,  and  demanding 
disclosure.  He  thinks  the  whole  world  sees  it 


116  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

in  his  face,  reads  it  in  his  eyes,  and  almost 
hears  its  workings  in  the  very  silence  of  his 
thoughts.  It  has  become  his  master.  It  betrays 
his  discretion,  it  breaks  down  his  courage,  it  con 
quers  his  prudence.  When  suspicions  from 
without  begin  to  embarrass  him,  and  the  net  of 
circumstance  to  entangle  him,  the  fatal  secret 
struggles  with  still  greater  violence  to  burst  forth. 
It  must  be  confessed,  it  will  be  confessed  ;  there 
is  no  refuge  from  confession  but  suicide,  and 
suicide  is  confession. 

SPLENDID    VICES. 

Such  is  human  nature,  that  some  persons  lose 
their  abhorrence  of  crime,  in  their  admiration  of 
its  magnificent  exhibitions.  Ordinary  vice  is 
reprobated  by  them  ;  but  extraordinary  guilt, 
exquisite  wickedness,  the  high  flights  and  poetry 
of  crime,  seize  on  the  imagination,  and  lead  them 
to  forget  the  depths  of  guilt,  in  admiration  of  the 
excellence  of  the  performance,  or  the  unequalled 
atrocity  of  the  purpose.  There  are  those,  in  our 
day,  who  have  made  great  use  of  this  infirmity 
of  our  nature  —  and,  by  means  of  it,  done  infi 
nite  injury  to  the  cause  of  good  morals.  They 
have  affected,  not  only  the  taste,  but,  I  fear,  also, 
the  principles  of  the  young,  the  heedless,  and 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  H7 

the  imaginative,  by  the  exhibition  of  interesting 
and  beautiful  monsters.  They  render  depravity 
Attractive,  sometimes  by  the  polish  of  its  man 
ners,  and  sometimes  by  its  very  extravagance  ; 
and  study  to  show  off  crime  under  all  the  advan 
tages  of  cleverness  and  dexterity. 

DUTY. 

Gentlemen,  your  whole  concern  should  be  to 
do  your  duty,  and  leave  consequences  to  take 
care  of  themselves.  You  will  receive  the  law 
from  the  court.  Your  verdict,  it  is  true,  may 
endanger  the  prisoner's  life;  but,  then,  it  is  to 
save  other  lives.  With  consciences  satisfied  with 
the  discharge  of  duty,  no  consequences  can 
harm  you.  There  is  no  evil  that  we  cannot 
either  face  or  fly  from,  but  the  consciousness  of 
duty  disregarded.  A  sense  of  duty  pursues  us 
ever.  It  is  omnipresent,  like  the  Deity.  If  we 
take  to  ourselves  the  wings  of  the  morning,  and 
dwell  in  the  utmost  parts  of  the  seas,  duty  per 
formed,  or  duty  violated,  is  still  with  us,  for  our 
happiness  or  our  misery.  If  we  say  the  dark 
ness  shall  cover  us,  in  the  darkness,  as  in  the 
light,  our  obligations  are  yet  with  us.  We  can 
not  escape  their  power,  nor  fly  from  their  pre 
sence.  They  are  with  us  in  this  life,  will  be 


118  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

with  us  at  its  close  ;  and,  in  that  scene  of  incon 
ceivable  solemnity,  which  lies  yet  farther  on 
ward,  we  shall  still  find  ourselves  surrounded 
by  the  consciousness  of  duty,  to  pain  us,  wher 
ever  it  has  been  violated,  and  to  console  us,  so 
far  as  God  may  have  given  us  grace  to  perform 
it. 

THE  JUDICIAL   OFFICE. 

But  further,  sir,  I  must  take  the  liberty  of  say 
ing,  that,  in  regard  to  the  judicial  office,  constan 
cy  of  employment  is  of  itself,  in  my  judgment,  a 
good,  and  a  great  good.  I  appeal  to  the  convic 
tion  of  the  whole  profession,  if,  as  a  general  ob 
servation,  they  do  not  find  that  those  who  decide 
most  causes,  decide  them  best.  Exercise 
strengthens  and  sharpens  the  faculties,  in  this, 
more  than  almost  any  other  employment.  I  would 
have  the  judicial  office  filled  by  him  who  is  wholly 
a  judge,  always  a  judge,  and  nothing  but  a  judge. 
With  proper  seasons,  of  course,  for  recreation 
and  repose,  his  serious  thoughts  should  all  be 
turned  to  his  official  duties  ;  he  should  be  omnis 
in  hoc.  I  think,  sir,  there  is  hardly  a  greater 
mistake,  than  has  prevailed  occasionally  in  some 
of  the  states,  of  creating  many  judges,  assigning 
them  duties  which  occupy  but  a  small  part  of 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  H9 

their  time,  and  then  making  this  the  ground  for 
allowing  them  a  small  compensation.  The  judi 
cial  office  is  incompatible  with  any  other  pursuit 
in  life,  and  all  the  faculties  of  every  man  who 
takes  it,  ought  to  be  constantly  exercised,  and 
exercised  to  one  end. 

IMPORTANCE  OF  CHARACTER. 

The  fate  of  the  respondent  is  in  your  hands. 
It  is  for  you  now  to  say,  whether,  from  the  law 
and  the  facts  as  they  have  appeared  before  you, 
you  will  proceed  to  disgrace  and  disfranchise 
him.  If  your  duty  calls  on  you  to  convict  him, 
convict  him,  and  let  justice  be  done  !  but  I  ad 
jure  you  let  it  be  a  clear,  undoubted  case.  Let 
it  be  so  for  his  sake,  for  you  are  robbing  him  of 
that,  for  which,  with  all  your  high  powers,  you 
can  yield  him  no  compensation  ;  let  it  be  so  for 
your  ownsakes,for  the  responsibility  of  this  day's 
judgment  is  one,  which  you  must  carry  with  you 
through  your  life.  For  myself,  I  am  willing  here 
to  relinquish  the  character  of  an  advocate,  and  to 
express  opinions  by  which  I  am  willing  to  be 
bound,  as  a  citizen  of  the  community.  Sir,  the 
prejudices  of  the  day  will  soon  be  forgotten  ;  the 
passions,  if  any  there  be,  which  have  excited  or 
favored  this  prosecution,  will  subside  ;  but  the 


120  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

consequence  of  the  judgment  you  are  about  to 
render,  will  outlive  them  and  you.  The  respon 
dent  is  now  brought,  a  single,  unprotected  indi 
vidual,  to  this  formidable  bar  of  judgment,  to 
stand  against  the  power  and  authority  of  the 
state.  I  know  you  can  crush  him,  as  he  stands 
before  you,  and  clothed,  as  you  are,  with  the  so 
vereignty  of  the  state.  You  have  the  power  to 
"  change  his  countenance,  and  to  send  him  away." 
Nor  do  I  remind  you  that  your  judgment  is  to  t^e 
rejudged  by  the  community  ;  and  as  you  have 
summoned  him  for  trial  to  this  high  tribunal,  you 
are  soon  to  descend  yourselves  from  these  seats 
of  justice,  and  stand  before  the  higher  tribunal  of 
the  world.  I  would  not  fail  so  much  in  respect 
to  this  honorable  court,  as  to  hint  that  it  could 
pronounce  a  sentence  which  the  community 
would  reverse.  No,  sir,  it  is  not  the  world's  re 
vision,  which  I  would  call  on  you  to  regard ;  but 
that  of  your  own  consciences  when  years  have 
gone  by,  and  you  shall  look  back  on  the  sentence 
you  are  about  to  render.  If  you  send  away  the 
respondent,  condemned  and  sentenced,  from  your 
bar,  you  are  yet  to  meet  him  in  the  world,  on 
which  you  cast  him  out.  You  will  be  called  to 
behold  him  a  disgrace  to  his  family,  a  sorrow  and 
a  shame  to  his  children,  a  living  fountain  of  grief 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  121 

and  agony  to  himself.  If  you  shall  then  be  able 
to  behold  him  only  as  an  unjust  judge,  whom 
vengeance  has  overtaken,  and  justice  has  blasted, 
you  will  be  able  to  look  upon  him,  not  without 
pity,  but  yet  without  remorse.  But  if,  on  the 
other  hand,  you  shall  see,  whenever  and  where- 
ever  you  meet  him,  a  victim  of  prejudice  or  of 
passion,  a  sacrifice  to  a  transient  excitement ;  if 
you  shall  see  in  him,  a  man,  for  whose  condem 
nation  any  provision  of  the  constitution  has  been 
violated,  or  any  principle  of  law  broken  down ; 
then  will  he  be  able,  humble  and  low  as  may  be 
his  condition  —  then  will  he  be  able  to  turn  the 
current  of  compassion  backward,  and  to  look  with 
pity  on  those  who  have  been  his  judges.  If  you  are 
about  to  visit  this  respondent  with  a  judgment 
which  shall  blast  his  house  ;  if  the  bosoms  of  the 
innocent  and  the  amiable  are  to  be  made  to  bleed, 
under  your  infliction,  I  beseech  you  to  be  able  to 
state  clear  and  strong  grounds  for  your  proceed 
ings.  Prejudice  and  excitement  are  transitory, 
and  will  pass  away.  Political  expediency,  in 
matters  of  judicature,  is  a  false  and  hollow  prin 
ciple,  and  will  never  satisfy  the  conscience  of 
him  who  is  fearful  that  he  may  have  given  a  hasty 
judgment.  I  earnestly  intreatyou,  for  your  own 
11 


122  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

Bakes,  to  possess  yourselves  of  soHd  reasons, 
founded  in  truth  and  justice,  for  the  judgment 
which  you  pronounce,  which  you  can  carry  with 
you,  till  you  go  down  into  your  graves  ;  reasons, 
which  it  will  require  no  argument  to  revive,  no 
sophistry,  no  excitement,  no  regard  to  popular 
favor,  to  render  satisfactory  to  your  consciences  ; 
reasons  which  you  can  appeal  to,  in  every  crisis 
of  your  lives,  and  which  shall  be  able  to  assure 
you,  in  your  own  great  extremity,  that  you  have 
not  judged  a  fellow  creature  without  mercy. 

Sir,  I  have  done  with  the  case  of  this  indivi 
dual,  and  now  leave  him  in  your  hands.  But  I 
would  yet  once  more  appeal  to  you  as  public 
men  ;  as  statesmen ;  as  men  of  enlightened  minds, 
capable  of  a  large  view  of  things,  and  of  foresee 
ing  the  remote  consequences  of  important  trans 
actions  ;  and,  as  such,  I  would  most  earnestly  im 
plore  you  to  consider  fully  of  the  judgment  you 
may  pronounce.  You  are  about  to  give  a  con 
struction  to  constitutional  provisions,  which  may 
adhere  to  that  instrument  for  ages,  either  for 
good  or  evil.  I  may,  perhaps,  overrate  the  im 
portance  of  this  occasion  to  the  public  welfare  ; 
but  I  confess  it  does  appear  to  me,  that  if  this 
body  give  its  sanction  to  some  of  the  principles 
which  have  been  advanced  on  this  occasion,  then 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  123 

there  is  a  power  in  the  state  above  the  constitu 
tion  and  the  law ;  a  power  most  essentially  arbi 
trary  and  concentrated,  the  exercise  of  which 
may  be  most  dangerous.  If  the  full  benefit  of 
every  constitutional  provision  be  not  extended  to 
the  respondent,  his  case  becomes  the  case  of  all 
the  people  of  the  Commonwealth.  The  consti 
tution  is  their  constitution.  They  have  made  it 
for  their  own  protection,  and  for  his  among  the 
rest.  They  are  not  eager  for  his  conviction. 
They  are  not  thirsting  for  his  blood.  If  he  be 
condemned,  without  having  his  offences  set  forth, 
in  the  manner  which  they,  by  their  constitution 
have  prescribed,  and  proved,  in  the  manner 
which  they  by  their  laws  have  ordained,  then, 
not  only  is  he  condemned  unjustly,  but  the  rights 
of  the  whole  people  disregarded.  For  the  sake 
of  the  people  themselves,  therefore,  I  would  re 
sist  all  attempts  to  convict,  by  straining  the  laws, 
or  getting  over  their  prohibitions.  I  hold  up  be 
fore  him  th  3  bro  .d  shield  of  the  constitution  ;  if 
throrgh  that  he  be  pierced  and  fall,  he  will  be 
but  one  sufferer,  in  a  common  catastrophe. 

JOHN  JAY. 

Your  recollections,  gentlemen,  your  respect, 
and  your  affections,  all  conspire  to  bring  before 


124  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

you,  at  such  a  time  as  this,  another  great  man, 
now,  alas  !  numbered  with  the  dead.  I  mean  the 
pure,  the  disinterested,  the  patriotic  John  Jay. 
His  character  is  a  brilliant  jewel  in  the  sacred 
treasures  of  national  reputation.  Leaving  his 
profession  at  an  early  period,  yet  not  before  he 
had  singularly  distinguished  himself  in  it,  from 
the  commencement  of  the  revolution,  his  whole 
life,  until  his  final  retirement,  was  a  life  of  public 
service.  A  member  of  the  first  Congress,  he  was 
the  author  of  that  political  paper  which  is  gene 
rally  acknowledged  to  stand  first  among  the  in 
comparable  productions  of  that  body ;  produc 
tions  which  called  forth  that  decisive  strain  of 
commendation  from  the  great  Lord  Chatham,  in 
which  he  pronounced  them  not  inferior  to  the 
finest  productions  of  the  master  States  of  the 
world.  Mr.  Jay  had  been  abroad,  and  had  also 
been  long  entrusted  with  the  difficult  duties  of 
our  foreign  correspondence  at  home.  He  had 
seen  and  felt,  in  the  fullest  measure,  and  to  the 
greatest  possible  extent,  the  difficulty  of  con 
ducting  our  foreign  affairs,  honorably  and  useful 
ly,  without  a  stronger  and  more  perfect  domes 
tic  union.  Though  not  a  member  of  the  Conven 
tion  which  framed  the  Constitution,  he  was  yet 
present  while  it  was  in  session,  and  looked 
anxiously  for  its  result.  By  the  choice  of  this 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  125 

city,  he  had  a  seat  in  the  State  Convention,  and 
took  an  active  and  zealous  part  for  the  adoption 
of  the  Constitution.  On  the  organization  of  the 
new  government,  he  was  selected  by  Washing 
ton  to  be  the  first  Chief  Justice  of  the  United 
States  ;  and  surely  the  high  and  most  responsible 
duties  of  that  station,  could  not  have  been  trust 
ed  to  abler  or  s  fer  hands.  It  is  the  duty,  one  of 
equal  importance  and  delicacy,  of  that  tribunal, 
to  decide  constitutional  questions,  arising  occa 
sionally,  on  State  Laws.  The  general  learning 
and  ability,  and  especially  the  prudence,  the 
mildness,  and  the  firmness  of  his  character,  emi 
nently  fitted  Mr.  Jay  to  be  the  head  of  such  a 
Court.  When  the  spotless  ermine  of  the  judicial 
robe  fell  on  JOHN  JAY,  it  touched  nothing  not  as 
spotless  as  itself. 

ALEXANDER    HAMILTON. 

I  should  do  violence  to  my  own  feelings,  gen 
tlemen,  —  I  think  I  should  offend  yours,  —  if  I 
omitted  respectful  mention  of  distinguished 
names,  yet  fresh  in  your  recollections.  How 
can  I  stand  here  to  speak  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  of  the  wisdom  of  its  provisions, 
of  the  difficulties  attending  its  adoption,  of  the 
evils  from  which  it  rescued  the  country,  and  of 

11* 


126  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

the  prosperity  and  power  to  which  it  has  raised 
it,  and  yet  pay  no  tribute  to  those  who  were  high 
ly  instrumental  in  accomplishing  the  work  ? 
While  we  are  here  to  rejoice,  that  it  yet  stands 
firm  and  strong ;  while  we  congratulate  one  ano 
ther  that  we  live  under  its  benign  influence,  and 
cherish  hopes  of  its  long  duration ;  we  cannot  for 
get  who  they  were,  that  in  the  day  of  our  national 
infancy,  in  the  times  of  despondency  and  des 
pair,  mainly  assisted  to  work  out  our  deliver 
ance.  I  should  feel  that  I  disregarded  the  strong 
recollections  which  the  occasion  presses  upon 
us,  that  I  was  not  true  to  gratitude,  nor  true  to 
patriotism,  nor  true  to  the  living  or  the  dead, 
not  true  to  your  feelings  or  my  own,  if  I  should 
forbear  to  make  mention  of  ALEXANDER  HAMIL 
TON. 

Coming  from  the  military  service  of  the  coun 
try,  yet  a  youth,  but  with  knowledge  and  ma 
turity,  even  in  civil  affairs,  far  beyond  his  years, 
he  made  this  City  the  place  of  his  adoption  ;  and 
he  gave  the  whole  powers  of  his  mind  to  the 
contemplation  of  the  weak  and  distracted  condi 
tion  of  the  country.  Daily  increasing  in  ac 
quaintance  and  confidence  with  the  people  of 
this  City,  he  saw,  what  they  also  saw,  the  abso 
lute  necessity  of  some  closer  bond  of  union  for 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  127 

the  States.  This  was  the  great  object  of  desire. 
He  never  appears  to  have  lost  sight  of  it,  but 
was  found  in  the  lead,  whenever  any  thing  was 
to  be  attempted  for  its  accomplishment.  One 
experiment  after  another,  as  is  well  known,  was 
tried,  and  all  failed.  The  states  were  urgently 
called  on  to  confer  such  further  powers  on  the 
old  Congress,  as  would  enable  it  to  redeem  the 
public  faith,  or  to  adopt,  themselves,  some  gene 
ral  and  common  principle  of  commercial  regu 
lation.  But  the  States  had  not  agreed,  and  were 
not  likely  to  agree.  In  this  posture  of  affairs, 
so  full  of  public  difficulty  and  public  distress, 
Commissioners  from  five  or  six  of  the  States 
met,  on  the  request  of  Virginia,  at  Annapolis,  in 
September,  1786.  The  precise  object  of  their 
appointment,  was  to  take  into  consideration  the 
trade  of  the  United  States  ;  to  examine  the  rela 
tive  situations  and  trade  of  the  several  states  — 
and  to  consider  how  far  a  uniform  system  of 
commercial  regulations  was  necessary  to  their 
common  interest  and  permanent  harmony.  Mr. 
Hamilton  was  one  of  these  Commissioners ;  and, 
I  have  understood,  though  I  cannot  assert  the 
fact,  that  their  Report  was  drawn  by  him.  His 
associate  from  this  State  was  the  venerable 
Judge  BENSON,  who  has  lived  long,  and  still  lives, 


128  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

to  see  the  happy  results  of  the  counsels  which 
originated  in  this  meeting.  Of  its  members,  he 
and  Mr.  Madison  are,  I  believe,  now  the  only 
survivors.  These  Commissioners  recommended, 
what  took  place  the  next  year,  a  General  Con 
vention  of  all  the  states,  to  ta  e  nto  serious  de 
liberation  the  condition  of  the  country,  and 
devise  such  provisions  as  should  render  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  Federal  Government  adequate  to 
the  exigencies  of  the  Union.  I  need  not  remind 
you,  thnt  of  this  Convention  Mr.  Hamilton  was 
an  active  and  efficient  member.  The  Constitu 
tion  was  framed  and  submitted  to  the  country. 
And  then  another  great  work  was  to  be  under 
taken.  The  Constitution  would  naturally  find, 
and  did  find,  enemies  and  opposers.  Objections 
to  it  were  numerous,  and  powerful,  and  spirited. 
They  were  to  be  answered  —  and  they  were, 
effectually,  answered.  The  writers  of  the  num 
bers  of  the  Federalist,  Mr.  Hamilton,  Mr.  Madi 
son,  and  Mr.  Jay,  so  greatly  distinguished  them 
selves  in  their  discussions  of  the  Constitution, 
that  those  numbers  are  generally  received  as 
important  commentaries  on  the  text,  and  accu 
rate  expositions,  in  general,  of  its  objects  and 
purposes.  Those  papers  were  all  written  and 
published  in  this  City.  Mr.  Hamilton  was  elect- 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  129 

ed  one  of  the  distinguished  delegation  from  the 
City,  into  the  State  Convention  at  Poughkeepsie, 
called  to  ratify  the  new  Constitution.  Its  de 
bates  are  published.  Mr.  Hamilton  appears  to 
have  exerted,  on  this  occasion,  to  the  utmost, 
every  power  and  faculty  of  his  mind. 

The  whole  question  was  likely  to  depend  on 
the  decision  of  New  York.  He  felt  the  full  impor 
tance  of  the  crisis ;  and  the  reports  of  his  speech 
es,  imperfect  as  they  probably  are,  are  yet  last 
ing  monuments  to  his  genius  and  patriotism.  He 
saw,  at  last,  his  hopes  fulfilled  ;  he  saw  the  Con 
stitution  adopted,  and  the  government  under  it 
established  and  organized.  The  discerning  eye 
of  Washington  immediately  called  him  to  that 
post,  which  was  infinitely  the  most  important  in 
the  administration  of  the  new  system.  He  was 
made  Secretary  of  the  Treasury;  and  how  he 
fulfilled  the  duties  of  such  a  place,  at  such  a 
time,  the  whole  country  perceived  with  delight, 
and  the  whole  world  saw  with  admiration.  He 
smote  the  rock  of  the  national  resources,  and 
abundant  streams  of  revenue  crushed  forth.  He 

o 

touched  the  dead  corpse  of  the  Public  Credit, 
and  it  sprung  upon  its  feet.  The  fabled  birth 
of  Minerva,  from  the  brain  of  Jove,  was  hardly 
more  sudden  or  more  perfect,  than  the  financial 


130  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

system  of  the  United   States,  burst  forth  from 
the  conceptions  of  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON. 

WASHINGTON. 

Gentlemen,  we  are  at  the  point  of  a  century 
from  the  birth  of  Washington  ;  and  what  a  cen 
tury  it  has  been  ]  During  its  course,  the  human 
mind  has  seemed  to  proceed  with  a  sort  of  geo 
metric  velocity,  accomplishing,  for  human  intel 
ligence  and  human  freedom,  more  than  had  been 
done  in  fives  or  tens  of  centuries  preceding. 
Washington  stands  at  the  commencement  of  a 
new  era,  as  well  as  at  the  head  of  the  new  world. 
A  century  from  the  birth  of  Washington  has 
changed  the  world.  The  country  of  Washing 
ton  has  been  the  theatre  on  which  a  great  part 
of  that  change  has  been  wrought;  and  Wash 
ington  himself  a  principal  agent  by  which  it  has 
been  accomplished.  His  age  and  his  country 
are  equally  full  of  wonders,  and  of  both  he  is 
the  chief. 

If  the  prediction  of  the  poet,  uttered  a  few 
years  before  his  birth,  be  true  ;  if,  indeed,  it  be 
designed  by  Providence  that  the  grandest  exhi 
bition  of  human  character  and  human  affairs 
shall  be  made  on  this  theatre  of  the  western 
world  ;  if  it  be  true  that, 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  131 

"  The  four  first  acts  already  past, 
A  fifth  shall  close  the  drama  with  a  day  ; 
Time's  noblest  offspring  is  the  last." 

How  could  this  imposing,  swelling,  final  scene, 
be  appropriately  opened  ;  how  could  its  intense 
interest  be  adequately  sustained,  but  by  the  intro 
duction  of  just  such  a  character  as  our  Washing 
ton] 

Washington  had  attained  his  manhood  when 
that  spark  of  liberty  was  struck  out  in  his  own 
country,  which  has  since  kindled  into  a  flame, 
and  shot  its  beams  over  the  earth.  In  the  flow 
of  a  century  from  his  birth,  the  world  has  chang 
ed  in  science,  in  arts,  in  the  extent  of  commerce, 
in  the  improvement  of  navigation,  and  in  all  that 
relates  to  the  civilization  of  man.  But  it  is  the 
spirit  of  human  freedom,  the  new  elevation  of 
individual  man,  in  his  moral,  social,  and  politi 
cal  character,  leading  the  whole  long  train  of 
other  improvements,  which  has  most  remarka 
bly  distinguished  the  era.  Society,  in  this  cen 
tury,  has  not  made  its  progress,  like  Chinese 
skill,  by  a  greater  acuteness  of  ingenuity  in 
trifles  ;  it  has  not  merely  lashed  itself  to  an  in 
creased  speed  round  the  old  circles  of  thought 
and  action,  but  it  has  assumed  a  new  character ; 
it  has  raised  itself  from  beneath  governments,  to 


132  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

a  participation  in  governments  ;  it  has  mixed 
moral  and  political  objects  with  the  daily  pur 
suits  of  individual  men  ;  and,  with  a  freedom 
and  strength  before  altogether  unknown,  it  has 
applied  to  these  objects  the  whole  power  of  the 
human  understanding.  It  has  been  the  era  — 
in  short,  when  the  social  principle  has  triumphed 
over  the  feudal  principle ;  when  society  has 
maintained  its  rights  against  military  power,  and 
established,  on  foundations  never  hereafter  to  be 
shaken,  its  competency  to  govern  itself. 

It  was  the  extraordinary  fortune  of  Washing 
ton,  that,  having  been  intrusted,  in  revolutionary 
times,  with  the  supreme  military  command,  and 
having  fulfilled  that  trust  with  equal  renown  for 
wisdom  and  for  valor,  he  should  be  placed  at  the 
head  of  the  first  government  in  which  an  attempt 
was  to  be  made,  on  a  large  scale,  to  rear  the  fa 
bric  of  social  order  on  the  basis  of  a  written  con 
stitution,  and  of  a  pure  representative  principle. 
A  government  was  to  be  established,  without  a 
throne,  without  an  aristocracy  —  without  castes, 
orders,  or  privileges ;  and  this  government,  in 
stead  of  being  a  democracy,  existing  and  acting 
within  the  walls  of  a  single  city,  was  to  be  ex 
tended  over  a  vast  country,  of  different  climates, 
interests,  and  habits,  and  of  various  sects  and 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  133 

sentiments  of  the  Christian  religion.  The  ex 
periment,  certainly,  was  entirely  new.  A  popu 
lar  government,  of  this  extent,  it  was  evident, 
could  be  framed  only  by  carrying  into  full  effect 
the  principle  of  representation,  or  of  delegated 
power ;  and  the  world  was  to  see  whether  so 
ciety  could,  by  the  strength  of  this  principle, 
maintain  its  own  peace  and  good  government  — 
carry  forward  its  own  great  interests,  and  con 
duct  itself  to  political  renown  and  glory.  By  the 
benignity  of  Providence,  this  experiment,  so  full 
of  interest  to  us  and  to  our  posterity  for  ever,  so 
full  of  interest,  indeed,  to  the  world,  in  its  present 
generation,  and  in  all  its  generations  to  come, 
was  suffered  to  commence  under  the  guidance 
of  Washington.  Destined  for  this  high  career, 
he  was  fitted  for  it  by  wisdom,  by  virtue,  by 
patriotism,  by  discretion,  by  whatever  can  in 
spire  confidence  in  man  toward  man.  In  enter 
ing  on  the  untried  scenes,  early  disappointment, 
and  the  premature  extinction  of  all  hope  of  suc 
cess,  would  have  been  certain,  had  it  not  been 
that  there  did  exist  throughout  the  country,  in  a 
most  extraordinary  degree,  an  unwavering  trust 
in  him  whose  hand  held  the  helm  of  affairs. 

I  remarked,  gentlemen,  that  the  whole  world 
was  and  is  interested  in  the  result  of  this  experi- 
12 


134  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

merit.  And  is  it  not  so  1  Do  we  deceive  our 
selves,  or  is  it  true,  that  at  this  moment  tlie  ca 
reer  which  this  government  is  running,  is  amongst 
the  most  attractive  objects  to  the  civilized  world  ] 
Do  we  deceive  ourselves,  or  is  it  true,  that  at  this 
moment  that  love  of  liberty,  and  that  understand 
ing  of  its  true  principles,  which  are  flying  over 
the  whole  earth,  as  on  the  wings  of  all  the  winds, 
are  really  and  truly  of  American  origin  1 

GOVERNMENT    OF    WASHINGTON. 

His  principle  it  was  to  act  right,  ancl  to  trust  the 
people  for  support;  his  principle  it  was  not  to  fol 
low  the  lead  of  sinster  and  selfish  ends,  and  to 
rely  on  the  little  arts  of  party  delusion  to  obtain 
public  sanction  for  such  a  course.  Born  for  his 
country,  and  for  the  world,  he  did  not  give  up  to 
party  what  was  meant  for  mankind.  The  conse 
quence  is,  that  his  fame  is  as  durable  as  his  prin 
ciples,  as  lasting  as  truth  and  virtue  themselves. 
While  the  hundreds  whom  party  excitement, 
and  temporary  circumstances,  and  casual  combi 
nations,  have  raised  into  transient  notoriety,  sink 
again,  like  thin  bubbles,  bursting  and  dissolving 
into  the  great  ocean,  Washington's  fame  is  like 
the  rock  which  bounds  that  ocean,  and  at  whose 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  135 

feet  its  billows  are  destined  to  break,  harmlessly, 
for  ever. 

The  maxims  upon  which  Washington  conduct 
ed  our  foreign  relations,  were  few  and  simple. 
The  first  was  an  entire  and  indisputable  impar 
tiality  towards  foreign  states.  He  adhered  to 
this  rule  of  public  conduct,  against  very  strong 
inducements  to  depart  from  it,  and  when  the 
popularity  of  the  moment  seemed  to  favor  such 
a  departure.  In  the  next  place,  he  maintained 
true  dignity,  and  unsullied  honor,  in  all  commu 
nications  with  foreign  states.  It  was  among  the 
high  duties  devolved  upon  him,  to  introduce  our 
new  government  into  the  circle  of  civilized  states 

o 

and  powerful  nations.  Not  arrogant  or  assuming, 
with  no  unbecoming  or  supercilious  bearing,  he 
yet  exacted  for  it,  from  all  others,  entire  and 
punctilious  respect.  He  demanded,  and  he  ob 
tained  at  once,  a  standing  of  perfect  equality  for 
his  country,  in  the  society  of  nations;  nor  was 
there  a  prince  or  potentate  of  his  day,  whose 
personal  character  carried  with  it,  into  the  inter 
course  with  other  states,  a  greater  degree  of 
respect  and  veneration. 

He  regarded  other  nations  only  as  they  stood 
in  political  relations  to  us.  With  their  internal 
affairs,  their  political  parties  and  dissensions,  he 


136  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

scrupulously  abstained  from  all  interference ; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  he  spiritedly  repelled  all 
such  interference  by  others  with  us  or  our  con 
cerns.  His  sternest  rebuke — the  most  indig 
nant  measure  of  his  whole  administration  —  was 
aimed  against  such  an  attempted  interference. 
He  felt  it  as  an  attempt  to  wound  the  national 
honor,  and  resented  it  accordingly. 

The  reiterated  admonitions,  in  his  Farewell 
Address,  show  his  deep  fears  that  foreign  influ 
ence  would  insinuate  itself  into  our  councils, 
through  the  channels  of  domestic  dissensions, 
and  obtain  a  sympathy  with  our  own  temporary 
parties.  Against  all  such  dangers,  he  most 
earnestly  entreats  the  country  to  guard  itself. 
He  appeals  to  its  patriotism,  to  its  self-respect, 
to  its  own  honor,  to  every  consideration  connect 
ed  with  its  welfare  and  happiness,  to  resist,  at 
the  very  beginning,  all  tendencies  towards  such 
connexion  of  foreign  interests  with  our  own 
affairs.  With  a  tone  of  earnestness  no  W7here 
else  found,  even  in  his  last  affectionate  farewell 
advice  to  his  countrymen,  he  says  —  "  Against 
the  insidious  wiles  of  foreign  influence,  (I 
conjure  you  to  believe  me,  fellow  citizens,) 
the  jealousy  of  a  free  people  ought  to  be  con 
stantly  awake;  since  history  and  experience 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  137 

prove,  that  foreign  influence  is  one  of  the  most 
baneful  foes  of  republican  government." 

THE  STRUGGLE  OP  POPULAR  POWER. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  great  political 
question  of  this  age,  is  that  between  absolute 
and  regulated  governments.  The  substance  of 
the  controversy  is,  whether  society  shall  have  any 
part  in  its  own  government.  Whether  the  form 
of  government  shall  be  that  of  limited  monar 
chy,  with  more  or  less  mixture  of  hereditary 
power,  or  wholly  elective,  or  representative,  may 
perhaps  be  considered  as  subordinate.  The  main 
controversy  is  between  that  absolute  rule,  which, 
while  it  promises  to  govern  well,  means  never 
theless  to  govern  without  control,  and  that  regu 
lated  or  constitutional  system,  which  restrains 
sovereign  discretion,  arid  asserts  that  society  may 
claim,  as  matter  of  right,  some  effective  power 
in  the  establishment  of  the  laws  which  are  to  re 
gulate  it.  The  spirit  of  the  times  sets  with  a 
most  powerful  current,  in  favor  of  these  last  men 
tioned  opinions.  It  is  opposed,  however,  when 
ever  and  wherever  it  shows  itself,  by  certain  of 
the  great  potentates  of  Europe;  and  it  is  oppos 
ed  on  grounds  as  applicable  in  one  civilized  na 
tion  as  in  another,  and  which  would  justify  such 
12* 


138  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

opposition  in  relation  to  the  United  States,  as 
well  as  in  relation  to  any  other  state,  or  nation, 
if  time  and  circumstance  should  render  such  op 
position  expedient. 

What  part  it  becomes  this  country  to  take  on 
a  question  of  this  sort,  so  far  as  it  is  called  upon 
to  take  any  part,  cannot  be  doubtful.  Our  side 
of  this  question  is  settled  for  us,  even  without 
our  own  volition.  Our  history,  our  situation,  our 
character,  necessarily  decide  our  position  and 
our  course,  before  we  have  even  time  to  ask 
whether  we  have  an  option.  Our  place  is  on  the 
side  of  free  institutions.  From  the  earliest  set 
tlement  of  these  states,  their  inhabitants  were 
accustomed,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  to  the 
enjoyment  of  the  powers  of  self-government  ; 
and  for  the  last  half  century,  they  have  sustained 
systems  of  government  entirely  representative, 
yielding  to  themselves  the  greatest  possible  pros 
perity,  and  not  leaving  them  without  distinction 
and  respect  among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  This 
system  we  are  not  likely  to  abandon ;  and  while 
we  shall  no  farther  recommend  its  adoption  to 
other  nations,  in  whole  or  in  part,  than  it  may  re 
commend  itself  by  its  visible  influence  on  our 
own  growth  and  prosperity,  we  are,  nevertheless, 
interested,  to  resist  the  establishment  of  doc- 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  139 

trines  which  deny  the  legality  of  its  foundations. 
We  stand  as  an  equal  among  nations,  claiming 
the  full  benefit  of  the  established  international 
law ;  and  it  is  our  duty  to  oppose,  from  the  ear 
liest  to  the  latest  moment,  any  innovations  upon 
that  code,  which  shall  bring  into  doubt  or  ques 
tion  our  own  equal  and  independent  rights. 

ORIGIN    OF    OUR    CONSTITUTION. 

Sir,  whatever  we  may  think  of  it  now,  the 
Constitution  had  its  immediate  origin  in  the  con 
viction  of  the  necessity  of  this  uniformity  or  iden 
tity,  in  commercial  regulations. 

The  whole  history  of  the  country,  of  every 
year  and  every  month,  from  the  close  of  the  war 
of  the  revolution,  to  1789,  proves  this.  Over 
whatever  other  interests  it  was  made  to  extend, 
and  whatever  other  blessings  it  now  does,  or  here 
after  may,  confer  on  the  millions  of  free  citizens 
who  do  or  shall  live  under  its  protection ;  even 
though,  in  time  to  come,  it  should  raise  a  pyra 
mid  of  power  and  grandeur,  whose  apex'  should 
look  down  on  the  loftiest  political  structures  of 
other  nations  and  other  ages,  it  will  yet  be  true, 
that  it  was  itself  the  child  of  pressing  commer 
cial  necessity.  Unity  and  identity  of  commerce 
among  all  the  states  was  its  seminal  principle.  It 


140  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

had  been  found  absolutely  impossible  to  excite 
or  foster  enterprise  in  trade,  under  the  influence 
(f  discordant  and  jarring  state  regulations.  The 
country  was  losing  all  the  advantages  of  its  posi 
tion.  The  revolution  itself  was  beginning  to  be 
]  egarded  as  a  doubtful  blessing.  The  ocean  be 
fore  us  was  a  barren  waste.  No  American  can 
vass  whitened  its  bosom  —  no  keels  of  ours 
ploughed  its  waters.  The  journals  of  the  congress 
of  the  confederation  how  the  most  constant,  un 
ceasing,  unwearied,  but  always  unsuccessful  ap 
peals  to  the  states  and  the  people,  to  renovate 
the  system,  to  infuse  into  that  confederation  at 
once  a  spirit  of  union  and  a  spirit  of  activity,  by 
conferring  on  congress  the  power  overtrade.  By 
nothing  but  the  perception  of  its  indispensable 
necessity  —  by  nothing  but  tl.eir  consciousness 
of  suffering  from  its  want,  were  the  states  and 
the  people  brought,  and  brought  by  slow  degrees, 
to  invest  this  power,  in  a  permanent  and  compe 
tent  government. 

Sir,  hearken  to  the  fervent  language  of  the  old 
congress,  in  July,  1785,  in  a  letter  addressed  to 
the  states,  prepared  by  Mr.  Monroe,  Mr.  King, 
and  other  great  names,  now  transferred  from  the 
lists  of  living  men,  to  the  records  which  carry 
down  the  fame  of  the  distinguished  dead.  The 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  141 

proposition  before  them,  the  great  objects  to 
which  they  so  solicitously  endeavored  to  draw 
the  attention  of  the  states,  was  this,  viz.  :  that 
"  the  United  States,  in  Congress  assembled, 
should  have  the  sole  and  exclusive  right  of  regu 
lating  the  trade  of  the  states,  as  well  with  foreign 
nations  as  with  each  other."  This,  they  say,  is 
urged  upon  the  states  by  every  consideration  of 
local,  as  well  as  of  federal  policy ;  and  they  be 
seech  them  to  agree  to  it,  if  they  wish  to  promote 
the  strength  of  the  union,  and  to  connect  it  by 
the  strongest  ties  of  interest  and  affection.  This 
was  in  July,  1785. 

In  the  same  spirit,  and  for  the  same  end,  was 
that  most  important  resolution  which  was  adopt 
ed  in  the  House  of  Delegates  of  Virginia,  on  the 
21st  day  of  the  following  January.  Sir,  I  read 
the  resolution  entire. 

"  Resolved^  That  Edmund  Randolph,  and 
others,  be  appointed  commissioners,  who,  or  any 
five  of  whom,  shall  meet  such  commissioners  as 
may  be  appointed  by  the  other  states  in  the 
union,  at  a  time  and  place  to  be  agreed  on,  to 
take  into  consideration  the  trade  of  the  United 
States;  to  examine, the  relative  situations  and 
trade  of  the  said  states  ;  to  consider  how  far  a 
uniform  system  in  their  commercial  regulations 


142  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

may  be  necessary  to  their  common  interest  and 
their  permanent  harmony,  and  to  report  to  the 
several  states  such  an  act  relative  to  this  great 
object,  as,  when  unanimously  ratified  by  them, 
will  enable  the  United  States,  in  Congress  as 
sembled,  effectually  to  provide  for  the  same  :  that 
the  said  commissioners  shall  immediately  trans 
mit  to  the  several  states  copies  of  the  preceding 
resolution,  with  a  circular  letter  requesting  their 
concurrence  therein,  and  proposing  a  time  and 
place  for  the  meeting  aforesaid." 

Here,  sir,  let  us  pause.     Let  us  linger  at  the 
waters  of  this  original  fountain.  Let  us  contem 
plate  this,  the  first  step,  in  that  series  of  proceed- - 
ings,   so  full   of  great  events  to   us  and   to  the 
world.    Notwithstanding  the  embarrassment  and 

o 

distress  of  the  country,  the  recommendation  of 
the  old  Congress  had  not  been  complied  with. 
Every  attempt  to  bring  the  state  legislatures  into 
any  harmony  of  action,  or  any  pursuit  of  a  com 
mon  object,  had  signally  and  disastrously  failed. 
The  exigency  of  the  case  called  for  a  new  move 
ment  ;  for  a  more  direct  and  powerful  attempt 
to  bring  the  good  sense  and  patriotism  of  the 
country  into  action  upon  the  crisis.  A  solemn 
assembly  was  therefore  proposed  —  a  general 
convention  of  delegates  from  all  the  states.  And 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  143 

now,  sir,  what  was  the  exigency  ]  What  was 
this  crisis  1  Look  at  the  resolution  itself;  there 
is  not  an  idea  in  it  but  trade.  Commerce  !  com 
merce  !  is  the  beginning  and  end  of  it.  The 
subject  to  be  considered  and  examined  was  "  the 
relative  situation  of  the  trade  of  the  states  ;"  and 
the  object  to  be  obtained  was  the  "  establish 
ment  of  a  uniform  system  in  their  commercial 
regulations,  as  necessary  to  the  common  interest 
and  their  permanent  harmony."  This  is  all. 
And,  sir,  by  the  adoption  of  this  ever-memorable 
resolution,  the  house  of  Delegates  of  Virginia, 
on  the  21st  day  of  January,  1786,  performed  the 
first  act  in  the  train  of  measures  which  resulted  in 
that  constitution,  under  the  authority  of  which 
you  now  sit  in  that  chair,  and  I  have  now  the 
honor  of  addressing  the  members  of  this  body. 

Mr.  President,  I  am  a  northern  man.  I  am  at 
tached  to  one  of  the  states  of  the  North,  by  the 
ties  of  birth  and  parentage,  education,  and  the 
associations  of  early  life  ;  and  by  sincere  gratitude 
for  proofs  of  public  confidence  early  bestowed.  I 
am  bound  to  another  Northern  state  by  adoption, 
by  long  residence,  by  all  the  cords  of  social  and 
domestic  life,  and  by  an  attachment  and  regard, 
springing  from  her  manifestation  of  approbation 
and  favor,  which  grapple  me  to  her  with  hooks 


144  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

of  steel.  And  yet,  sir,  with  the  same  sincerity 
of  respect,  the  same  deep  gratitude,  the  same 
reverence  and  hearty  good  will,  with  which  I 
would  pay  a  similar  tribute  to  either  of  these 
states,  do  I  here  acknowledge  the  Common 
wealth  of  Virginia  to  be  entitled  to  the  honor  of 
commencing  the  work  of  establishing  this  consti 
tution.  The  honor  is  hers  ;  let  her  enjoy  it  ;  let 
her  forever  wear  it  proudly  ;  there  is  not  a  brigh 
ter  jewel  in  the  tiara  that  adorns  her  brow.  Let 
this  resolution  stand,  illustrating  her  records,  and 
blazoning  her  name  through  all  time  ! 

The  meeting,  sir,  proposed  by  the  resolution 
was  holden.  It  took  place,  as  all  know,  in  An 
napolis,  in  May  of  the  same  year ;  but  it  was 
thinly  attended,  and  its  members,  very  wisely, 
adopted  measures  to  bring  about  a  fuller  and 
more  general  convention.  Their  letter  to  the 
states  on  this  occasion  is  full  of  instruction.  It 
shows  their  sense  of  the  unfortunate  condition  of 
the  country.  In  their  meditations  on  the  subject, 
they  saw  the  extent  to  which  the  commercial 
power  must  necessarily  extend.  The  sagacity 
of  New  Jersey  had  led  her,  in  agreeing  to  the 
original  proposition  of  Virginia,  to  enlarge  the 
object  of  the  appointment  of  commissioners,  so 
as  to  embrace  not  only  commercial  regulations, 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  145 

but  otlier  important  matters.  This  suggestion  the 
commissioners  adopted,  because  they  thought,  as 
they  inform  us,  "  that  the  power  of  regulating 
trade  is  of  such  comprehensive  extent,  and  will 
enter  so  far  into  the  general  system  of  the  Fede 
ral  government,  that  to  give  it  efficacy,  and  to 
obviate  questions  and  doubts  concerning  its  pre 
cise  nature  and  limits,  might  require  a  correspon 
dent  adjustment  of  other  parts  of  the  Federal 
system."  Here  you  see,  sir,  that  other  powers, 
such  as  are  now  in  the  constitution,  were  ex 
pected  to  branch  out  of  the  necessary  commer 
cial  power  ;  and,  therefore,  the  letter  of  the  com 
missioners  concludes  with  recommending  a  gene 
ral  convention,  "  to  take  into  consideration  the 
whole  situation  of  the  United  States,  and  to  devise 
such  further  provisions  as  should  appear  neces 
sary  to  render  the  constitution  of  the  Federal 
government  adequate  to  the  exigencies  of  the 
union." 

The  result  of  that  convention  was  the  present 
constitution.  And  yet,  in  the  midst  of  all  this 
flood  of  light,  respecting  its  original  objects  and 
purposes,  and  with  all  the  adequate  powers  which 
it  confers,  we  abandon  the  commerce  of  the 
country,  we  betray  its  interests,  we  turn  our 
selves  away  from  its  most  crying  necessities.  Sir, 
13 


146  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

it  will  be  a  fact,  stamped  in  deep  and  dark  lines 
upon  our  annals  ;  it  will  be  a  truth,  which  in  all 
time  can  never  be  denied  or  evaded,  that  if  this 
constitution  shall  not,  now  and  hereafter,  be  so 
administered  as  to  maintain  a  uniform  system  in 
all  matters  of  trade  ;  if  it  shall  not  protect  and 
regulate  the  commerce  of  the  country,  in  all  its 
great  interests,  in  its  foreign  intercourse,  in  its 

domestic  intercourse,  in  its  navigation,  in  its  cur- 

7  o          * 

rency,  in  every  thing  which  fairly  belongs  to  the 
whole  idea  of  commerce,  either  as  an  end,  an 
agent,  or  an  instrument,  then  that  constitution 
will  have  failed,  utterly  failed,  to  accomplish  the 
precise,  distinct,  original  object,  in  which  it  had 
its  being. 

In  matters  of  trade,  we  were  no  longer  to  be 
Georgians,  Virginians,  Pennsylvanians,  or  Mas 
sachusetts  men.  We  were  to  have  but  one  com 
merce,  and  that  the  commerce  of  the  United 
States.  There  were  not  to  be  separate  flags, 
waving  over  separate  commercial  systems.  There 
was  to  be  one  flag,  the  E  PLURIBUS  UNUM  ;  and 
toward  that  was  to  be  that  rally  of  united  inter 
ests  and  affections,  which  our  fathers  had  so  ear 
nestly  invoked. 

Mr.  President,  this  unity  of  commercial  regu 
lation  is,  in  my  opinion,  indispensable  to  the 
safety  of  the  union  of  the  states  themselves.  In 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  147 

peace,  it  is  its  strongest  tie.  I  care  not,  sir,  on 
what  side,  or  in  which  of  its  branches,  it  may  be 
attacked.  Every  successful  attack  upon  it,  made 
anywhere,  weakens  the  whole,  and  renders  the 
next  assault  easier  and  more  dangerous.  Any 
denial  of  its  just  power  is  an  attack  upon  it.  We 
attack  it,  most  fiercely  attack  it,  whenever  we 
say  we  will  not  exercise  the  powers  which  it  en 
joins.  If  the  Court  had  yielded  to  the  preten 
sions  of  respectable  states  upon  the  subject  of 
steam  navigation,  and  to  the  retaliatory  proceed 
ings  of  other  states  ;  if  retreat  and  excuse,  and 
disavowal  of  power,  had  been  prevailing  senti 
ments  then,  in  what  condition,  at  this  moment, 
let  me  ask,  would  the  steam  navigation  of  the 
country  be  found  ]  To  us,  sir,  to  us,  his  coun 
trymen,  to  us,  who  feel  so  much  admiration  for 
his  genius,  and  so  much  gratitude  for  his  servi 
ces,  Fulton  would  have  lived  almost  in  vain. 
State  grants  and  state  exclusions  would  have 
covered  over  all  our  waters. 

Sir,  it  is  in  the  nature  of  such  things,  that  the 
first  violation,  or  the  first  departure  from  true 
principles,  draws  more  important  violations  or 
departures  after  it ;  and  the  first  surrender  of  just 
authority  will  be  followed  by  others  more  to  be 
deplored.  If  commerce  be  a  unit,  to  break  it  in 


148  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

any  one  part,  is  to  decree  its  ultimate  dismem 
berment  in  all.  If  there  be  made  a  first  chasm, 
though  it  be  small,  through  that  the  whole  wild 
ocean  will  pour  in,  and  we  may  then  throw  up 
embankments  in  vain. 

Sir,  the  spirit  of  union  is  particularly  liable  to 
temptation  and  seduction,  in  moments  of  peace 
and  prosperity.  In  war,  this  spirit  is  strengthen 
ed  by  a  sense  of  common  danger,  and  by  a  thou 
sand  recollections  of  ancient  efforts  and  ancient 
glory  in  a  common  cause.  In  the  calms  of  a  long 
peace,  and  the  absence  of  all  apparent  causes  of 
alarm,  things  near  gain  an  ascendancy  over  things 
remote.  Local  interests  and  feelings  overshadow 
national  sentiments.  Our  attention,  our  regard, 
and  our  attachment,  are  every  moment  solicited 
to  what  touches  us  closest,  and  we  feel  less  and 
less  the  attraction  of  a  distant  orb.  Such  tenden 
cies,  we  are  bound  by  the  true  patriotism,  and 
by  our  love  of  union,  to  resist.  This  is  our  duty; 
and  the  moment,  in  my  judgment,  has  arrived 
when  that  duty  is  summoned  to  action.  We  hear, 
every  day,  sentiments  and  arguments,  which 
would  become  a  meeting  of  envoys,  employed  by 
separate  governments,  more  than  they  become 
the  common  legislature  of  a  united  country. 
Constant  appeals  are  made  to  local  interests,  to 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  149 

geographical  distinctions,  and  to  the  policy  and 
the  pride  of  particular  states.  It  would  some 
times  appear  that  it  was,  or  as  if  it  were,  a  settled 
purpose  to  convince  the  people  that  our  union  is 
nothing  but  a  jumble  of  different  and  discordant 
interests,  which  must,  ere  long,  be  all  returned 
to  their  original  state  of  separate  existence  ;  as 
if,  therefore,  it  was  of  no  great  value  while  it 
should  last,  and  was  not  likely  to  last  long.  The 
process  of  disintegration  begins,  by  urging  the 
fact  of  different  interests. 

Sir,  is  not  the  end  obvious,  to  which  all  this 
leads  us  1  Who  does  not  see  that,  if  convictions 
of  this  kind  take  possession  of  the  public  mind, 
our  union  can  hereafter  be  nothing,  while  it  re 
mains  but  a  connexion  without  harmony  ;  a  bond 
without  affection  ;  a  theatre  for  the  angry  con 
tests  of  local  feelings,  local  objects,  and  local  jea 
lousies  ]  Even  while  it  continues  to  exist,  in 
name,  it  may,  by  these  means,  become  nothing 
but  the  mere  form  of  a  united  government.  My 
children,  and  the  children  of  those  who  sit  around 
me,  may  meet,  perhaps,  in  this  chamber  in  the 
next  generation  ;  but  if  tendencies,  now  but  too 
obvious,  be  not  checked,  they  will  meet  as  stran 
gers  and  aliens.  They  will  feel  no  sense  of  com 
mon  interest  or  common  country :  they  will  che- 

13* 


150  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

rish  no  common  object  of  patriotic  love.  If  the 
same  Saxon  language  shall  fall  from  their  lips,  it 
may  be  the  chief  proof  that  they  belong  to  the 
same  nation.  Its  vital  principle  exhausted  and 
gone,  its  power  of  doing  good  terminated,  now 
productive  only  of  strife  and  contention,  and  no 
longer  sustained  by  a  sense  of  common  interest, 
the  union  itself  must  ultimately  fall,  dishonored 
and  unlamented. 

GREECE. 

Sir,  they  have  clone  much.  It  would  be  great 
injustice  to  compare  their  achievements  with  our 
own.  We  began  our  revolution,  already  pos 
sessed  of  government,  and,  comparatively,  of 
civil  liberty.  Our  ancestors  had,  for  centuries, 
been  accustomed,  in  a  great  measure,  to  govern 
themselves.  They  were  well  acquainted  with 
popular  elections  and  legislative  assemblies,  and 
the  general  principles  and  practice  of  free  govern 
ments.  They  had  little  else  to  do  than  to  throw 
off  the  paramount  authority  of  the  parent  state. 
Enough  wras  still  left,  both  of  law  and  of  organi 
zation,  to  conduct  society  in  its  accustomed 
course;  and  to  unite  men  together  for  a  common 
object.  The  Greeks,  of  course,  could  act  with 
little  concert  at  the  beginning;  they  were  unac- 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  151 

customed  to  the  exercise  of  power,  without  ex 
perience,  with  limited  knowledge,  without  aid, 
and  surrounded  by  nations  which,  whatever 
claims  the  Greeks  might  seem  to  have  had  upon 
them,  have  afforded  them  nothing  but  discourage 
ment  and  reproach.  They  have  held  out,  how 
ever,  for  three  campaigns ;  and  that,  at  least,  is 
something,  Constantinople  and  the  northern 
provinces  have  sent  forth  thousands  of  troops  ; 
they  have  been  defeated.  Tripoli,  and  Algiers, 
and  Egypt,  have  contributed  their  marine  con 
tingents ;  they  have  not  kept  the  ocean.  Hordes 
of  Tartars  have  crossed  the  Bosphorus  ;  —  they 
have  died  where  the  Persians  died.  The  power 
ful  monarchies  in  the  neighborhood,  have  de 
nounced  their  cause,  and  admonished  them  to 
abandon  it,  and  submit  to  their  fate.  They  have 
answered  them,  that,  although  two  hundred 
thousand  of  their  countrymen  have  offered  up 
their  lives,  there  yet  remain  lives  to  offer  ;  and 
that  it  is  the  determination  of  all,  "yes,  of  ALL," 
to  persevere  until  they  shall  have  established 
their  liberty,  or,  until  the  power  of  their  op 
pressors  shall  have  relieved  them  from  the  bur 
den  of  existence. 

It  may  now  be  asked,   perhaps,  whether  the 
expression  of  our  own  sympathy,  and  that  of  the 


152  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

country,  may  do  them  good  ]  I  hope  it  may.  It 
may  give  them  courage  and  spirit,  it  may  assure 
them  of  public  regard,  teach  them  that  they  are 
not  wholly  forgotten  by  the  civilized  world,  and 
inspire  them  with  constancy  in  the  pursuit  of 
their  great  end.  At  any  rate,  sir,  it  appears  to  me, 
that  the  measure  which  I  have  proposed  is  due 
to  our  own  character,  and  called  for  by  our  own 
duty.  When  we  shall  have  discharged  that  duty, 
we  may  leave  the  rest  to  the  disposition  of  Provi 
dence. 

THE    PROTEST. 

Mr.  President,  I  have  spoken  freely  of  this 
Protest,  and  of  the  doctrines  which  it  advances  ; 
but  I  have  said  nothing  which  I  do  not  believe. 
On  these  high  questions  of  Constitutional  law, 
respect  for  my  own  character,  as  well  as  a  solemn 
and  profound  sense  of  duty,  restrains  me  from 
giving  utterance  to  a  single  sentiment  which 
does  not  flow  from  entire  conviction.  I  feel  that 
I  am  not  wrong.  I  feel  that  an  inborn  and  inbred 
love  of  Constitutional  liberty,  and  some  study  of 
our  political  institutions,  have  not,  on  this  occa 
sion,  misled  me.  But  I  have  desired  to  say 
nothing  that  should  give  pain  to  the  Chief  Magis 
trate,  personally.  I  have  not  sought  to  fix  ar- 


BEAUTIES  OP  WEBSTER.  153 

rows  in  his  breast;  but  I  believe  him  mistaken, 
altogether  mistaken,  in  the  sentiments  which  he 
has  expressed ;  and  I  must  concur  with  others 
in  placing  on  the  records  of  the  Senate,  my  dis 
approbation  of  those  sentiments.  On  a  vote, 
which  is  to  remain  so  long  as  any  proceeding  of 
the  Senate  shall  last,  and  on  a  question  which 
can  never  cease  to  be  important  while  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  country  endures,  1  have  desired 
to  make  public  my  reasons.  They  will  now  be 
known,  and  I  submit  them  to  the  judgment  of 
the  present  and  of  after  times.  Sir,  the  occasion 
is  full  of  interest.  It  cannot  pass  off  without 
leaving  strong  impressions  on  the  character  of 
public  men.  A  collision  has  taken  place,  which 
I  could  have  most  anxiously  wished  to  avoid ; 
but  it  was  not  to  be  shunned.  We  have  riot 
sought  this  controversy  —  it  has  met  us,  and  been 
forced  upon  us.  In  my  judgment,  the  law  has 
been  disregarded,  and  the  Constitution  trans 
gressed  ;  the  fortress  of  liberty  has  been  assault 
ed,  and  circumstances  have  placed  the  senate  in 
the  breach  ;  and,  although  we  may  perish  in  it, 
I  know  we  shall  not  fly  from  it.  But  I  am  fear 
less  of  consequences.  We  shall  hold  on,  sir,  and 
hold  out,  till  the  people  themselves  come  to  its 
defence.  We  shall  raise  the  alarm,  and  main- 


154  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

tain  the  post  till  they,  whose  right  it  shall  be  to 
decide  whether  the  senate  be  a  faction,  wantonly 
resisting  lawful  power,  or  whether  it  be  opposing, 
with  firmness  and  patriotism,  violations  of  liber 
ty,  and  inroads  upon  the  Constitution. 

JOHN    ADAMS. 

There  is  yet  among  the  living  a  most  distin 
guished  and  venerable  name  —  a  descendant  of 
the  Pilgrims ;  one  who  has  been  attended  through 
life  by  a  great  and  fortunate  genius  ;  a  man  illus 
trious  by  his  own  great  merits,  and  favored  of 
heaven  in  the  long  continuation  of  his  years. 
The  time  when  the  English  orator  was  thus 
speaking  of  America,  preceded,  but  by  a  few 
days,  the  actual  opening  of  the  revolutionary 
drama  at  Lexington.  He  to  whom  I  have  al 
luded,  then  at  the  age  of  forty,  was  among  the 
most  zealous  and  able  defenders  of  the  violated 
rights  of  his  country.  He  seemed  already  to 
have  filled  a  full  measure  of  public  service,  and 
attained  an  honorable  fame.  The  moment  was 
full  of  difficulty  and  danger,  and  big  with  events 
of  immeasurable  importance.  The  country  was 
on  the  very  brink  of  a  civil  war,  of  which  no  man 
could  foretell  the  duration  or  the  result.  Some 
thing  more  than  a  courageous  hope,  or  charac- 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  155 

teristic  ardor,  would  have  been  necessary  to  im 
press  the  glorious  prospect  on  his  belief,  if,  at 
that  moment,  before  the  sound  of  the  first  shock 
of  actual  war  had  reached  his  ears,  some  attend 
ant  spirit  had  opened  to  him  the  vision  of  the 
future;  if  it  had  said  to  him,  "  the  blow  is  struck, 
and  America  is  severed  from  England  for  ever  !" 
if  it  had  informed  him,  that  he  himself,  the  next 
annual  revolution  of  the  sun,  should  put  his  own 
hand  to  the  great  instrument  of  Independence, 
arid  write  his  name  where  all  nations  should  be 
hold  it,  and  all  time  should  not  efface  it ;  that  ere 
long  he  himself  should  maintain  the  interest,  and 
represent  the  sovereignty  of  his  new-born  coun 
try,  in  the  proudest  courts  of  Europe ;  that  he 
should  one  day  exercise  her  supreme  magistra 
cy  ;  that  he  should  yet  live  to  behold  ten  millions 
of  fellow-citizens  paying  him  the  homage  of  their 
deepest  gratitude,  and  kindest  affections ;  that 
he  should  see  distinguished  talent  and  high  pub 
lic  trust  resting  where  his  name  rested  ;  that  he 
should  even  see,  with  his  own  unclouded  eyes, 
the  close  of  the  second  century  of  New  Eng 
land,  who  had  begun  life  almost  with  its  com 
mencement,  and  lived  through  nearly  half  the 
whole  history  of  his  country ;  and  that,  on  the 
morning  of  this  auspicious  day,  he  should  be 


156  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

found  in  the  political  councils  of  his  native  state, 
revising,  by  the  light  of  experience,  that  system 
of  government,  which,  forty  years  before,  he  had 
assisted  to  frame  and  establish ;  and  great  and 
happy  as  he  should  then  behold  his  country,  there 
should  be  nothing  in  prospect  to  cloud  the  scene, 
nothing  to  check  the  ardor  of  that  confident  and 
patriotic  hope,  which  should  glow  in  his  bosom 
to  the  end  of  his  long  protracted  and  happy  life. 


THE    SOUTH. 


I  spoke,  sir,  of  the  ordinance  of  1787,  which 
prohibited  slavery,  in  all  future  times,  northwest 
of  the  Ohio,  as  a  measure  of  great  wisdom  and 
foresight,  and  one  which  had  been  attended  with 
highly  beneficial  and  permanent  consequences. 
I  supposed,  that  on  this  point,  no  two  gentle 
men  in  the  Senate  could  entertain  different  opi 
nions.  But  the  simple  expression  of  this  senti 
ment  has  led  the  gentleman,  not  only  into  a  la 
bored  defence  of  slavery  in  the  abstract,  and  on 
principle,  but,  also,  into  a  warm  accusation 
against  me,  as  having  attacked  the  system  of 
domestic  slavery  now  existing  in  the  southern 
States.  For  all  this,  there  was  not  the  slightest 
foundation  in  any  thing  said  or  intimated  by  me. 
I  did  not  utter  a  single  word  which  any  ingenu- 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  157 

ity  could  torture  into  an  attack  on  the  slavery  of 
the  south.  I  said,  only,  that  it  was  highly  wise 
and  useful,  in  legislating  for  the  northwestern 
country,  while  it  was  yet  a  wilderness,  to  prohi 
bit  the  introduction  of  slaves,  and  added,  that  I 
presumed,  in  the  neighboring  state  of  Kentucky, 
there  was  no  reflecting  and  intelligent  gentle 
man  who  would  doubt,  that  if  the  same  prohibi 
tion  had  been  extended,  at  the  same  early  pe 
riod,  over  that  commonwealth,  her  strength  and 
population  would,  at  this  day,'  have  been  far 
greater  than  they  are.  If  these  opinions  be 
thought  doubtful,  they  are,  nevertheless,  I  trust, 
neither  extraordinary  nor  disrespectful ;  —  they 
attack  nobody,  and  menace  nobody.  And  yet, 
sir,  the  gentleman's  optics  have  discovered,  even 
in  the  mere  expression  of  this  sentiment,  what 
he  calls  the  very  spirit  of  the  Missouri  question  ! 
He  represents  me  as  making  an  onset  on  the 
whole  south,  and  manifesting  a  spirit  which 
would  interfere  with  and  disturb  their  domestic 
condition !  Sir,  this  injustice  no  otherwise  sur 
prises  me,  than  as  it  is  done  here,  and  done  with 
out  the  slightest  pretence  of  ground  for  it.  I  say 
it  only  surprises  me  as  being  done  here  —  for  I 
know  full  well,  that  it  is  and  has  been  the  settled 
policy  of  some  persons  in  the  south,  for  years,  to 
14 


15S  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

represent  the  people  of  the  north  as  disposed  to 
interfere  with  them  in  their  own  exclusive  and 
peculiar  concerns.  This  is  a  delicate  and  sen 
sitive  point  in  southern  feeling,  and,  of  late  years, 
it  has  always  been  touched,  and,  generally,  with 
effect,  whenever  the  object  has  been  to  unite 
the  whole  south  against  northern  men,  or  north 
ern  measures.  This  feeling,  always  carefully 
kept  alive,  and  maintained  at  too  intense  a  heat 
to  admit  discrimination  or  reflection,  is  a  lever 
of  great  power  in  our  political  machine.  It 
moves  vast  bodies,  and  gives  to  them  one  and 
the  same  direction.  But  the  feeling  is  without 
an  adequate  cause,  and  the  suspicion  which  ex 
ists,  wholly  groundless.  There  is  not,  and  never 
has  been,  a  disposition  in  the  north,  to  interfere 
with  these  interests  of  the  south.  Such  interfe 
rence  has  never  been  supposed  to  be  within  the 
power  of  the  government,  nor  has  it  been  in  any 
way  attempted.  It  has  always  been  regarded 
as  a  matter  of  domestic  policy,  left  with  the 
states  themselves,  and  with  which  the  Federal 
Government  had  nothing  to  do.  Certainly,  sir, 
I  am,  and  ever  have  been,  of  that  opinion.  The 
gentleman,  indeed,  argues  that  slavery,  in  the 
abstract,  is  no  evil.  Most  assuredly,  I  need  not 
say  I  differ  with  him  altogether,  and  most  widely 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  159 

on  that  point.  I  regard  domestic  slavery  as  one 
of  the  greatest  of  evils,  both  moral  and  political. 
But,  though  it  be  a  malady,  and  whether  it  be 
curable,  and  if  so,  by  what  means  —  or,  on  the 
other  hand,  whether  it  be  the  vulnus  immedica- 
bile  of  the  social  system  —  I  leave  it  to  those  whose 
right  arid  duty  it  is  to  inquire  and  to  decide. 
And  this,  I  believe,  sir,  is,  and  uniformly  has 
been,  the  sentiment  of  the  north.  Let  us  look 
a  little  at  the  history  of  this  matter. 

When  the  present  constitution  was  submitted 
for  the  ratification  of  the  people,  there  were 
those  who  imagined  that  the  powers  of  the  go 
vernment  which  it  proposed  to  establish,  might, 
perhaps,  in  some  possible  mode,  be  exerted  in 
measures  tending  to  the  abolition  of  slavery. 
This  suggestion  would,  of  course,  attract  much 
atten  ion  in  the  southern  conventions.  In  that 
of  Virginia,  Governor  Randolph  said  : 

"  I  hope  there  is  none  here  who,  considering 
the  subject  in  the  calm  light  of  philosophy,  will 
make  an  objection  dishonorable  to  Virginia ;  — 
that  at  the  moment  they  are  securing  the  rights 
of  their  citizens,  an  objection  is  started  that  there 
is  a  spark  of  hope,  that  those  unfortunate  men, 
now  held  in  bondage,  may,  by  the  operation  of 
the  general  government,  be  made  free," 


160  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

At  the  very  first  Congress,  petitions  on  the 
subject  were  presented,  if  I  mistake  not,  from  dif 
ferent  states.  The  Pennsylvania  Society  for  pro 
moting  the  Abolition  of  Slavery  took  a  lead,  and 
laid  before  Congress  a  memorial,  praying  Con 
gress  to  promote  the  abolition,  by  such  powers  as 
it  possessed.  This  memorial  was  referred,  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  to  a  select  committee, 
consisting  of  Mr.  Foster,  of  New  Hampshire, 
Mr.  Gerry,  of  Massachusetts,  Mr.  Huntington,  of 
Connecticut,  Mr.  Lawrence,  of  New  York,  Mr. 
Sinnickson,  of  New  Jersey,  Mr.  Hartley,  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  Mr.  Parker,  of  Virginia;  all 
of  them,  sir,  as  you  will  observe,  northern  men, 
but  the  last.  This  committee  made  a  report, 
which  was  committed  to  a  committee  of  the 
whole  house,  and  there  considered  and  discussed 
on  several  days ;  and  being  amended,  although 
in  no  material  respect,  it  was  made  to  express 
three  distinct  propositions  on  the  subjects  of 
slavery  and  the  slave  trade.  First,  in  the  words 
of  the  constitution,  that  Congress  could  not,  prior 
to  the  year  1808,  prohibit  the  migration  or  im 
portation  of  such  persons,  as  any  of  the  states 
then  existing  should  think  proper  to  admit.  Se 
cond,  that  Congress  had  authority  to  restrain  the 
citizens  of  the  United  States  from  carrying  on 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  ]61 

the  African  slave  trade,  for  the  purpose  of  sup 
plying  foreign  countries.  On  this  proposition 
our  early  laws  against  those  who  engage  in  that 
traffic  are  founded.  The  third  proposition,  and 
that  which  bears  on  the  present  question,  was 
expressed  in  the  following  terms  : 

"  Resolved,  That  Congress  have  no  authority 
to  interfere  in  the  emancipation  of  slaves,  or  in 
the  treatment  of  them  in  any  of  the  States ;  it 
remaining  with  the  several  States  alone  to  pro 
vide  rules  and  regulations  therein,  which  hu 
manity  and  true  policy  may  require." 

This  resolution  received  the  sanction  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  so  early  as  March, 
1790.  And  now,  sir,  the  honorable  member  will 
allow  me  to  remind  him,  that  not  only  were  the  se 
lect  committee  who  reported  the  resolution,  with 
a  single  exception,  all  northern  men,  but,  also,  that 
of  the  members  then  composing  the  House  of 
Representatives,  a  large  majority,  I  believe  near 
ly  two  thirds,  were  northern  men  also. 

The  House  agreed  to  insert  these  resolutions 
in  its  journals,  and  from  that  day  to  this  it  has 
never  been  maintained  or  contended  that  Con 
gress  had  any  authority  to  regulate  or  interfere 
with  the  condition  of  slaves  in  the  several  States. 
No  northern  gentleman,  to  my  knowledge,  has 
14* 


162  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

moved  any  such  question,  in  either  House  of 
Congress. 

The  fears  of  the  south,  whatever  fears  they 
might  have  entertained,  were  allayed  and  quiet 
ed  by  this  early  decision  —  and  so  remained, 
till  they  were  excited  afresh,  without  cause,  but 
for  collateral  and  indirect  purposes.  When  it 
became  necessary,  or  was  thought  so,  by  some 
political  persons,  to  find  an  unvarying  ground  for 
the  exclusion  of  northern  men  from  confidence 
and  from  lead  in  the  affairs  of  the  Republic,  then, 
and  not  till  then,  the  cry  was  raised,  and  the 
feeling  industriously  excited,  that  the  influence 
of  northern  men  in  the  Public  Councils  would 
endanger  the  relation  of  master  and  slave.  For 
myself,  I  claim  no  other  merit  than  that  this 
gross  and  enormous  injustice  towards  the  whole 
north  has  not  wrought  upon  me  to  change  my 
opinions,  or  my  political  conduct.  I  hope  I  am 
above  violating  my  principles,  even  under  the 
smart  of  injury  and  false  imputations.  Unjust 
suspicions  and  undeserved  reproach,  whatever 
pain  I  may  experience  from  them,  will  not  in 
duce  me,  I  trust,  nevertheless,  to  overstep  the 
limits  of  constitutional  duty,  or  to  encroach  on 
the  rights  of  others.  The  domestic  slavery  of 
the  south  I  leave  where  I  find  it  - —  in  the  hands 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  163 

of  their  own  governments.     It  is  their  affair,  not 
mine. 

Nor  do  I  complain  of  the  peculiar  effect  which 
the  magnitude  of  that  population  has  had  in  the 
distribution  of  power  under  this  federal  govern 
ment.  We  know,  sir,  that  the  representation 
of  the  states  in  the  other  house  is  not  equal.  We 
know  that  great  advantage,  in  that  respect,  is 
enjoyed  by  the  slave-holding  states  ;  and  we 
know,  too,  that  the  intended  equivalent  for  that 
advantage,  that  is  to  say,  the  imposition  of  direct 
taxes  in  the  same  ratio,  has  become  merely  no 
minal  ;  the  habit  of  the  government  being  almost 
invariably  to  collect  its  revenues  from  other 
sources,  and  in  other  modes.  Nevertheless,  I 
do  not  complain,  nor  would  I  countenance  any 
movement  to  alter  this  arrangement  of  repre 
sentation.  It  is  the  original  bargain,  the  com 
pact  —  let  it  stand ;  let  the  advantage  of  it  be 
fully  enjoyed.  The  Union  itself  is  too  full  of 
benefit  to  be  hazarded  in  propositions  for  chang 
ing  its  original  basis.  I  go  for  the  Constitution 
as  it  is,  and  for  the  Union  as  it  is.  But  I  am 
resolved  not  to  submit,  in  silence,  to  accusations, 
either  against  myself,  individually,  or  against  the 
north,  wholly  unfounded  and  unjust  —  accusa 
tions  which  impute  to  us  a  disposition  to  evade 


164  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

the  constitutional  compact,  and  to  extend  the 
power  of  the  government  over  the  internal  laws 
and  domestic  condition  of  the  states.  All  such 
accusations,  wherever  and  whenever  made,  all 
insinuations  of  the  existence  of  such  purposes,  I 
know  and  feel  to  be  groundless  and  injurious. 
And  we  must  confide  in  southern  gentlemen 
themselves ;  we  must  trust  to  those  whose  in 
tegrity  of  heart  and  magnanimity  of  feeling  will 
lead  them  to  desire  to  maintain  and  disseminate 
truth,  and  who  possess  the  means  of  its  diffusion 
with  the  southern  public  ;  we  must  leave  it  to 
them  to  disabuse  that  public  of  its  prejudices  ; 
but,  in  the  mean  time,  for  my  own  part,  I  shall 
continue  to  act  justly,  whether  those  towards 
whom  justice  is  exercised,  receive  it  with  candor 
or  with  contumely." 

GOVERNMENT. 

Certain  it  is,  that  popular  constitutional  liber 
ty,  as  we  enjoy  it,  appears,  in  the  present  state 
of  the  world,  as  sure  and  stable  a  basis  for  go 
vernment  to  rest  upon,  as  any  government  of 
enlightened  states  can  find  or  does  find.  Certain 
it  is,  that  in  these  times  of  so  much  popular 
knowledge,  and  so  much  popular  activity,  those 
governments  which  do  not  admit  the  people  to 


BEAUTIES  OP  WEBSTER.  165 

partake  in  their  administration,  but  keep  them 
under  and  beneath,  sit  on  materials  for  an  ex 
plosion,  which  may  take  place  at  any  moment, 
and  blow  them  into  a  thousand  atoms. 


THE    COUNTRY. 

Gentlemen,  our  country  stands,  at  the  present 
time,  on  commanding  ground.  Older  nations, 
with  different  systems  of  government,  may  be 
somewhat  slow  to  acknowledge  all  that  justly 
belongs  to  us.  But  we  may  feel,  without  vanity, 
that  America  is  doing  its  part  in  the  great  work 
of  improving  human  affairs.  There  are  two 
principles,  gentlemen,  strictly  and  purely  Ame 
rican,  which  are  now  likely  to  overrun  the  civi 
lized  world.  Indeed,  they  seem  the  necessary 
result  of  the  progress  of  civilization  and  know 
ledge.  These  are,  first,  popular  governments, 
restrained  by  written  constitutions  ;  and,  second 
ly,  universal  education.  Popular  governments, 
and  general  education,  acting  arid  re-acting, 
mutually  producing  and  re-producing  each  other, 
are  the  mighty  agencies  which,  in  our  days,  ap 
pear  to  be  exciting,  stimulating,  and  changing 
civilized  societies.  Man,  every  where,  is  now 
found  demanding  a  participation  in  government, 
and  he  will  not  be  refused ;  and  he  demands 


166  BEAUTIES  OP  WEBSTER. 

knowledge  as  necessary  to  self-government.  On 
the  basis  of  these  two  principles,  liberty  and 
knowledge,  our  own  American  systems  rest. 
Thus  far  we  have  not  been  disappointed  in  their 
results.  Our  existing  institutions,  raised  on 
these  foundations,  have  conferred  on  us  almost 
unmixed  happiness.  Do  we  hope  to  better  our 
condition  by  change  r(  When  we  shall  have 
nullified  the  present  constitution,  what  are  we 
to  receive  in  its  place  ?  As  fathers,  do  we  wish 
for  our  children  better  government  or  better 
laws  1  As  members  of  society,  as  lovers  of  our 
country,  is  there  any  thing  we  can  desire  for  it 
better  than  that,  as  ages  and  centuries  roll  over 
it,  it  may  possess  the  same  invaluable  institutions 
which  it  now  enjoys  ?  For  my  part,  gentlemen, 
I  can  only  say,  that  I  desire  to  thank  the  beneficent 
Author  of  all  good,  for  being  born  where  I  was 
born,  and  when  I  was  born  ;  that  the  portion  of 
human  existence  allotted  to  me,  has  been  meted 
out  to  me  in  this  goodly  land,  and  at  this  inte 
resting  period.  I  rejoice  that  I  have  lived  to 
see  so  much  development  of  truth,  so  much 
progress  of  liberty,  so  much  diffusion  of  virtue 
and  happiness.  And  through  good  report,  and 
through  evil  report,  it  will  be  my  consolation  to 
be  the  citizen  of  a  republic  unequalled  in  the 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  167 

annals  of  the  world  for  the  freedom  of  its  insti 
tutions,  its  high  prosperity,  and  the  prospects  of 
good  which  yet  lie  before  it.  Our  course,  gen 
tlemen,  is  onward,  straight  onward,  and  forward. 
Let  us  riot  turn  to  the  right  hand  or  to  the  left. 
Our  path  is  marked  out  for  us — clear,  plain, 
bright,  distinctly  defined,  like  the  milky  way 
across  the  heavens.  If  we  are  true  to  our  coun 
try,  in  our  day  and  generation,  and  those  who 
come  after  us  shall  be  true  to  it  also,  assuredly 
we  shall  elevate  her  to  a  pitch  of  prosperity  and 
happiness,  of  honor  and  power,  never  yet  reached 
by  any  nation  beneath  the  sun. 

LOVE    OF    LIBERTY. 

No  American  can  pass  by  the  fields  of  Bunker 
Hill,  Monmouth,  or  Camden,  as  if  they  were 
ordinary  spots  on  the  earth's  surface.  Whoever 
visits  them,  feels  the  sentiment  of  love  of  coun 
try  kindling  anew,  as  if  the  spirit  that  belonged 
to  the  transactions  which  have  rendered  these 
places  distinguished,  still  hovered  round,  with 
power  to  move  and  excite  all  who  in  future  time 
may  approach  them. 

MORAL    EXAMPLE. 

But  neither  of  these  sources  of  emotion  equals 


168  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

the  power  with  which  great  moral  examples 
affect  Toe  mind.  When  sublime  virtues  cease  to 
be  abstractions,  when  they  become  embodied  in 
human  character,  and  exemplified  in  human 
conduct,  we  should  be  false  to  our  own  nature 
if  we  did  riot  indulge  in  the  spontaneous  effu 
sions  of  our  gratitude  and  our  admiration.  A 
true  lover  of  the  virtue  of  patriotism,  delights  to 
contemplate  its  purest  models;  and  that  love  of 
country  may  be  well  suspected,  which  affects  to 
soar  so  high  into  the  regions  of  sentiment,  as  to 
be  lost  and  absorbed  in  the  abstract  feeling,  and 
becomes  too  elevated  or  too  refined  to  glow  with 
fervor  in  the  commendation  or  the  love  of  indi 
vidual  benefactors.  All  this  is  unnatural.  It  is 
as  if  one  should  be  so  enthusiastic  a  lover  of 
poetry,  as  to  care  nothing  for  Homer  or  Milton  ; 
so  passionately  attached  to  eloquence,  as  to  be 
indifferent  to  Tully  and  Chatham  ;  or  such  a  de 
votee  to  the  arts,  in  such  an  ecstacy  with  the 
elements  of  beauty,  proportion,  and  expression, 
as  to  regard  the  master-pieces  of  Raphael  and 
Michael  Angelo  with  coldness  and  contempt. 
We  may  be  assured,  gentlemen,  that  he  who 
really  loves  the  thing  itself,  really  loves  its  finest 
exhibitions.  A  true  friend  of  his  country  loves 
her  friends  and  benefactors,  and  thinks  it  no  de- 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  169 

gradation  to  commend  and  commemorate  them. 
The  voluntary  out-pouring  of  the  public  feeling, 
made  to  day  from  the  north  to  the  south,  and 
from  the  east  to  the  west,  proves  this  sentifnent 
to  be  both  just  and  natural.  In  the  cities  and  in 
the  villages,  in  the  public  temples  and  in  the  fa 
mily  circles,  among  all  ages  and  sexes,  gladden 
ed  voices  to  day  bespeak  grateful  hearts,  and  a 
freshened  recollection  of  the  virtues  of  the  Fa 
ther  of  his  country.  And  it  will  be  so  in  all  time 
to  come,  so  long  as  public  virtue  is  itself  an  ob 
ject  of  regard.  The  ingenuous  youth  of  Ameri 
ca  will  hold  up  to  themselves  the  bright  model 
of  Washington's  example,  and  study  to  be  what 
they  behold.  They  will  contemplate  his  charac 
ter  till  all  its  virtues  spread  out  and  display  them 
selves  to  their  delighted  vision ;  as  the  earliest 
astronomers,  the  shepherds  on  the  plains  of 
Babylon,  gazed  at  the  stars  till  they  saw  them 
form  in  clusters  and  constellations,  overpower 
ing,  at  length,  the  eyes  of  the  beholders  with 
the  united  blaze  of  a  thousand  lights. 

PROGRESS    OP    FREEDOM. 

Gentlemen,  the  spirit  of  human  liberty  and  of 
free    government,    nurtured    and    grown    into 
strength  and  beauty  in  America,  has  stretched 
15 


170  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

its  course  into  the  midst  of  the  nations.  Like  an 
emanation  from  heaven,  it  has  gone  forth,  and  it 
will  not  return  void.  It  must  change,  it  is  fast 
changing,  the  face  of  the  earth.  Our  great,  our 
high  duty,  is  to  show,  by  our  example,  that  this 
spirit  is  a  spirit  of  health  as  well  as  a  spirit  of 
power ;  that  its  benignity  is  as  great  as  its 
strength  ;  that  its  efficiency  to  secure  individual 
rights,  social  relations,  and  moral  order,  is  equal 
to  the  irresistible  force  with  which  it  prostrates 
principalities  and  powers.  The  world,  at  this 
moment,  is  regarding  us  with  a  willing,  but 
something  of  a  fearful  admiration.  Its  deep  and 
awful  anxiety  is  to  learn,  whether  free  states  may 
be  stable  as  well  as  free  ;  whetherpopular  power 
may  be  trusted  as  well  as  feared  ;  in  short,  whe 
ther  wise,  regular,  and  virtuous  self-government, 
is  a  vision  for  the  contemplation  of  theorists,  or 
a  truth,  established,  illustrated,  and  brought  into 
practice,  in  the  country  of  Washington. 

Gentlemen,  for  the  earth  which  we  inhabit, 
and  the  whole  circle  of  the  sun,  for  all  the  un 
born  races  of  mankind,  we  seem  to  hold  in  our 
hands,  for  their  weal  or  wo,  the  fate  of  this  ex 
periment.  If  we  fail,  who  shall  venture  the  re 
petition  ?  If  our  example  shall  prove  to  be  one, 
not  of  encouragement,  but  terror,  not  fit  to  be 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  171 

imitated,  but  fit  to  be  shunned  —  where  else  shall 
the  world  look  for  free  models  ?  If  this  great 
Western  Sun  be  struck  out  of  the  firmament,  at 
what  other  fountain  shall  the  lamp  of  liberty 
hereafter  be  lighted  ?  What  other  orb  shall  emit 
a  ray  to  glimmer,  even,  on  the  darkness  of  the 
world  1 

PART?    FEELINGS. 

Among  other  admonitions,  Washington  left  us, 
in  his  last  communication  to  his  country,  an  ex 
hortation  against  the  excesses  of  party  spirit.  A 
fire  not  to  be  quenched,  he  yet  conjures  us  not 
to  fan  or  feed  the  flame.  Undoubtedly,  gentle 
men,  it  is  the  greatest  danger  of  our  system,  and 
of  our  time.  Undoubtedly,  if  that  system  should 
be  overthrown,  it  will  be  the  work  of  excessive 
party  spirit,  acting  on  the  government,  which  is 
dangerous  enough,  or  acting  in  the  government, 
which  is  a  thousand  times  more  dangerous  ;  for 
government  then  becomes  nothing  but  organized 
party,  and  in  the  strange  vicissitudes  of  human 
affairs,  it  may  come  at  last,  perhaps,  to  exhibit 
the  singular  paradox,  of  government  itself  being 
in  opposition  to  its  own  powers,  at  war  with  the 
very  elements  of  its  own  existence.  Such  cases 
are  hopeless.  As  man  may  be  protected  against 


172  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

murder,  but  cannot  be  guarded  against  suicide, 
so  government  may  be  shielded  from  the  assaults 
of  external  foes,  but  nothing  can  save  it  when  it 
chooses  to  lay  violent  hand  on  itself. 

UNION    IN    MASSACHUSETTS. 

At  least,  sir,  let  the  star  of  Massachusetts  be 
the  last  which  shall  be  seen  to  fall  from  heaven, 
and  to  plunge  into  the  utter  darkness  of  disunion. 
Let  her  shrink  back  —  let  her  hold  others  back, 
if  she  can  ;  at  any  rate,  let  her  keep  herself  back 
from  this  gulf,  full,  at  once,  of  fire  and  blackness  : 
yes,  sir,  as  far  as  human  foresight  can  scan,  or 
human  imagination  fathom,  full  of  the  fire  and 
the  blood  of  civil  war,  and  of  the  thick  darkness 
of  general  political  disgrace,  ignominy,  and  ruin. 
Though  the  worst  may  happen  that  can  happen, 
and  though  she  may  not  be  able  to  prevent  the 
catastrophe,  yet  let  her  maintain  her  own  integ 
rity,  her  own  high  honor,  her  own  unwavering 
fidelity,  so  that  with  respect  and  decency,  though 
with  a  broken  and  a  bleeding  heart,  she  may- 
pay  the  last  tribute  to  a  glorious,  departed,  free 
constitution. 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  173 

THE  PRESENT  AND  THE  FUTURE. 

The  hours  of  this  day  are  rapidly  flying,  and 
this  occasion  will  soon  be  passed.  Neither  we 
nor  our  children  can  expect  to  behold  its  return. 
They  are  in  the  distant  regions  of  futurity ;  they 
exist  only  in  the  all  creating  power  of  God,  who 
shall  stand  here,  a  hundred  years  hence,  to  trace 
through  us  their  descent  from  the  pilgrims,  and 
to  survey,  as  we  have  surveyed,  the  progress  of 
their  country,  during  the  lapse  of  a  century.  We 
would  anticipate  their  concurrence  with  us  in  our 
sentiments  of  deep  regard  for  our  common  an 
cestors.  We  would  anticipate  and  partake  of  the 
pleasure  with  which  they  will  then  recount  the 
steps  of  New  England's  advancement.  On  the 
morning  of  that  day,  although  it  will  not  disturb 
us  in  our  repose,  the  voice  of  acclamation  and 
gratitude,  commencing  on  the  Rock  of  Plymouth, 
shall  be  transmitted  through  millions  of  the  sons 
of  the  pilgrims,  till  it  lose  itself  in  the  murmurs 
of  the  Pacific  seas. 

We  would  leave, for  the  consideration  of  those 
who  shall  then  occupy  our  places,  some  proof 
that  we  hold  the  blessings  transmitted  from  our 
fathers  in  just  estimation  ;  some  proof  of  our  at 
tachment  to  the  cause  of  good  government,  and 


174  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

of  civil  and  religious  liberty;  some  proof  of  a 
sincere  and  ardent  desire  to  promote  every  thing 
which  may  enlarge  the  understandings  and  im 
prove  the  hearts  of  men.  And  when,  from  the 
long  distance  of  an  hundred  years,  they  shall 
look  back  upon  us,  they  shall  know,  at  least,  that 
we  possessed  affections,  which,  running  back 
ward,  and  warming  with  gratitude  for  what  our 
ancestors  have  done  for  our  happiness,  run  for 
ward  also  to  our  posterity,  and  meet  them  with 
cordial  salutation,  ere  yet  they  have  arrived  on 
the  shore  of  being.  Advance,  then,  ye  future 
generations  !  We  would  hail  you,  as  you.  rise  in 
your  succession  to  fill  the  places  which  we  now 
fill,  and  to  taste  the  blessings  of  existence,  where 
we  are  passing  and  soon  shall  have  passed,  over 
our  own  human  duration.  We  bid  you  welcome 
to  this  pleasant  land  of  the  fathers.  We  bid  you 
welcome  to  the  healthful  skies  and  the  verdant 
fields  of  New  England.  We  greet  your  acces 
sion  to  the  great  inheritance,  which  we  have  en 
joyed.  We  welcome  you  to  the  blessings  of  good 
government,  and  religious  liberty.  We  welcome 
you  to  the  treasures  of  science,  and  the  delights 
of  learning.  We  welcome  you  to  the  transcen 
dent  sweets  of  domestic  life,  to  the  happiness  of 
kindred,  and  parents,  and  children.  We  welcome 


BEAUTIES  OP  WEBSTER.  175 

you  to  the  immeasurable  blessing  of  rational  ex 
istence  —  the  immortal  hope  of  Christianity,  and 
the  light  of  everlasting  truth  ! 

DUTY    OF    REPRESENTATIVES. 

We  have  been  taught  to  regard  a  representa 
tive  of  the  people  as  a  sentinel  on  the  watch-tow 
er  of  liberty.  Is  he  to  be  blind,  though  visible 
danger  approaches  1  Is  he  to  be  deaf,  though 
sounds  of  peril  fill  the  air  1  Is  he  to  be  dumb, 
while  a  thousand  duties  impel  him  to  raise  the 
cry  of  alarm  1  Is  he  not,  rather,  to  catch  the 
lowest  whisper  which  breathes  intention  or  pur 
pose  of  encroachment  on  the  public  liberties,  and 
to  give  his  voice  breath  and  utterance  at  the  first 
appearance  of  danger  ?  Is  not  his  eye  to  traverse 
the  whole  horizon,  with  the  keen  and  eager  vi 
sion  of  an  unhooded  hawk,  detecting,  through  all 
disguises,  every  enemy  advancing,  in  any  form, 
towards  the  citadel  which  he  guards  1  Sir,  this 
watchfulness  for  public  liberty,  this  duty  of  fore 
seeing  danger  and  proclaiming  it,  this  prompti 
tude  and  boldness  in  resisting  attacks  on  the 
constitution  from  any  quarter,  this  defence  of  es 
tablished  landmarks,  this  fearless  resistance  of 
whatever  would  transcend  or  remove  them,  —  all 
belong  to  the  representative  character,  are  inter- 


176  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

woven  with  its  very  nature,  and  of  which  it  can 
not  be  deprived,  without  converting  an  active,  in 
telligent,  faithful  agent  of  the  people,  into  an 
unresisting  and  passive  instrument  of  power.  A 
representative  body  which  gives  up  these  rights 
and  duties,  gives  itself  up.  It  is  a  representative 
body  no  longer.  It  has  broken  the  tie  between 
itself  and  its  constituents,  and  henceforth  is  fit 
cnly  to  be  regarded  as  an  inert,  self-sacrificed 
mass,  from  which  all  appropriate  principle  of  vi 
tality  has  departed  forever. 

DUTY  OF  THE  SENATE. 

Mr.  President,  I  have  spoken  freely  of  this 
protest,  and  of  the  doctrines  which  it  advances  ; 
but  I  have  said  nothing  which  I  do  not  believe. 
On  these  high  questions  of  constitutional  law, 
respect  for  my  own  character,  as  well  as  a  so 
lemn  and  profound  sense  of  duty,  restrains  me 
from  giving  utterance  to  a  single  sentiment  which 
does  not  flow  from  entire  conviction.  I  feel  that 
I  am  not  wrong.  I  feel  that  an  inbornrand  in 
bred  love  of  constitutional  liberty,  and  some  study 
of  our  political  institutions,  have  not,  on  this  oc 
casion,  misled  me.  But  I  have  desired  to  say 
nothing  that  should  give  pain  to  the  chief  magis 
trate  personally.  I  have  not  sought  to  fix  arrows 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  177 

in  his  breast ;  but  I  believe  him  mistaken,  alto 
gether  mistaken,  in  the  sentiments  which  he  has 
expressed;  and  I  must  concur  with  others  in 
placing  on  the  records  of  the  Senate,  my  disap 
probation  of  those  sentiments.  On  a  vote,  which 
is  to  remain  so  long  as  any  proceeding  of  the  Se 
nate  shall  last,  and  on  a  question  which  can  ne 
ver  cease  to  be  important  while  the  constitution 
of  the  country  endures,  I  have  desired  to  make 
public  my  reasons.  They  will  now  be  known, 
and  I  submit  them  to  the  judgment  of  the  pre 
sent  and  of  after  times.  Sir,  the  occasion  is  full 
of  interest.  It  cannot  pass  off  without  leaving 
strong  impressions  on  the  character  of  public 
men.  A  collision  has  taken  place,  which  I  could 
have  most  anxiously  wished  to  avoid  ;  it  was  not 
to  be  shunned.  We  have  not  sought  this  contro 
versy  ;  it  has  met  us,  and  been  forced  upon  us. 
In  my  judgment,  the  law  has  been  disregarded, 
arid  the  constitution  transgressed  ;  the  fortress  of 
liberty  has  been  assaulted,  and  circumstances 
have  placed  the  Senate  in  the  breach  ;  and,  al 
though  we  may  perish  in  it,  I  know  we  shall  not 
fly  from  it.  But  I  am  fearless  of  consequences. 
We  shall  hold  on,  sir,  and  hold  out,  till  the  peo 
ple  themselves  come  to  its  defence.  We  shall 
raise  the  alarm,  and  maintain  the  post,  till  they, 


178  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

whose  right  it  is,  shall  decide  whether  the  Senate 
be  a  faction,  wantonly  resisting  lawful  power,  or 
whether  it  be  opposing,  with  firmness  and  pa 
triotism,  violations  of  liberty  and  inroads  upon 
the  constitution. 

CITY    OF    NEW    YORK. 

Gentlemen,  as  connected  with  the  constitution, 
you  have  also  local  recollections  which  must  bind 
it  still  closer  to  your  attachment  and  affection.  It 
commenced  its  being,  and  its  blessings,  here.  It 
was  in  this  city,  in  the  midst  of  friends,  anxious, 
hopeful,  and  devoted,  that  the  new  government 
started  in  its  course.  To  us,  gentlemen,  wlio 
are  younger,  it  has  come  down  by  tradition  ;  but 
some  around  me  are  old  enough  to  have  witness 
ed,  and  did  witness,  the  interesting  scene  of  the 
first  inauguration.  They  remember  what  voices 
of  gratified  patriotism,  what  shouts  of  enthusias 
tic  hope,  what  acclamations,  rent  the  air  —  how 
many  eyes  were  suffused  with  tears  of  joy  —  how 
cordially  each  man  pressed  the  hand  of  him  who 
was  next  to  him,  when,  standing  in  the  open  air, 
in  the  centre  of  the  city,  in  the  view  of  assembled 
thousands,  the  first  President  was  heard  solemn 
ly  to  pronounce  the  words  of  his  official  oath, 
repeating  them  from  the  lips  of  Chancellor  Li- 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  179 

VINGSTON.  You  then  thought,  gentlemen,  that 
the  great  work  of  the  revolution  was  accomplish 
ed.  You  then  felt  that  you  had  a  government  — 
that  the  United  States  were  then,  indeed,  united. 
Every  benignant  star  seemed  to  shed  its  select- 
est  influence  on  that  auspicious  hour.  Here  were 
heroes  of  the  revolution  ;  here  were  sages  of  the 
convention  ;  here  were  minds,  disciplined  and 
schooled  in  all  the  various  fortunes  of  the  coun 
try,  acting  now  in  several  relations,  but  all  co 
operating  to  the  same  great  end,  the  successful 
administration  of  the  new  and  untried  constitu 
tion.  And  he  —  how  shall  I  speak  of  him  1  — 
he  was  at  the  head,  who  was  already  first  in 
war,  —  who  was  already  first  in  the  hearts  of  his 
countrymen,  —  and  who  was  now  shown  also,  by 
the  unanimous  suffrage  of  the  country,  to  be  first 
in  peace. 

Gentlemen,  how  gloriously  have  the  hopes 
then  indulged  been  fulfilled  !  Whose  expecta 
tion  was  then  so  sanguine  —  I  may  almost  ask, 
whose  imagination  then  so  extravagant  —  as  to 
run  forward,  and  contemplate  as  probable,  the 
one  half  of  what  has  been  accomplished  in  forty 
years  ?  Who  among  you  can  go  back  to  1789, 
and  see  what  this  city,  and  this  country,  too, 
then  were  —  and  then,  beholding  what  they  now 


180  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

are,  can  be  ready  to  consent  that  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States  shall  be  weakened, 
nullified,  or  dishonored  ] 

MADISON. 

Gentlemen,  before  I  leave  these  pleasant  re 
collections,  I  feel  it  an  irresistible  impulse  of 
duty  to  pay  a  tribute  of  respect  to  another  dis 
tinguished  person,  not,  indeed,  a  fellow-citizen 
of  your  own,  but  associated  with  those  I  have 
already  mentioned,  in  important  labors,  and  an 
early  and  indefatigable  friend  and  advocate  in 
the  great  cause  of  the  Constitution.  Gentlemen, 
I  refer  to  Mr.  MADISON.  I  am  aware,  gentle 
men,  that  a  tribute  of  regard  from  me  to  him  is 
of  little  importance  ;  but  if  it  shall  receive  your 
approbation  and  sanction,  it  will  become  of  value. 
Mr.  Madison,  thanks  to  a  kind  Providence,  is  yet 
among  the  living,  and  there  is,  certainly,  no 
other  individual  living  to  whom  the  country  is  so 
much  indebted  for  the  blessings  of  the  Constitu 
tion.  He  was  one  of  the  Commissioners  at  An 
napolis  in  1786,  at  the  meeting  of  which  I  have 
already  spoken  ;  a  meeting  which,  to  the  great 
credit  of  Virginia,  had  its  origin  in  a  proceeding 
of  that  state.  He  was  a  member  of  the  conven 
tion  of  1789,  and  of  that  of  Virginia,  the  follow- 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  181 

ing  year.  He  was  thus  intimately  acquainted 
with  the  whole  progress  of  the  formation  of  the 
Constitution,  from  its  very  first  step  to  its  final 
adoption.  If  ever  man  had  the  means  of  under 
standing  a  written  instrument,  Mr.  Madison  has 
the  means  of  understanding  the  Constitution.  If 
it  be  possible  to  know  what  was  designed  by  it, 
he  can  tell  us.  It  was  in  this  city  that,  in  con 
junction  with  Mr.  Hamilton  and  Mr.  Jay,  he 
wrote  the  numbers  of  the  Federalist;  and  it  was 
in  this  city  that  he  commenced  his  brilliant  ca 
reer,  under  the  new  constitution,  having  been 
elected  into  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
first  congress.  The  recorded  votes  and  debates 
of  those  times  show  his  active  and  efficient  agency 
in  every  important  measure  of  that  congress. 
The  necessary  organization  of  the  government, 
the  arrangement  of  the  departments,  arid,  espe 
cially,  the  paramount  subject  of  revenue,  en 
gaged  his  attention  arid  shared  his  labors. 

PERSECUTION  OF  THE  PILGRIMS. 

It  is  certain,  that  although  many  of  them  were 
Republicans  in  principle,  we  have  no  evidence 
that  our  New  England  ancestors  would  have 
emigrated,  as  they  did,  from  their  own  native 
country,  become  wanderers  in  Europe,  and  final- 
16 


182  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

ly  undertaken  the  establishment  of  a  colony  here, 
merely  from  their  dislike  of  the  political  systems 
of  Europe.  They  fled  not  so  much  from  the 
civil  government,  as  from  the  Hierarchy,  and 
the  laws  which  enforced  conformity  to  the  Church 
Establishment.  Mr.  Robinson  had  left  England 
as  early  as  sixteen  hundred  and  eight,  on  account 
of  the  persecutions  for  nonconformity,  and  had 
retired  to  Holland.  He  left  England,  from  no 
disappointed  ambition  in  affairs  of  state,  from  no 
regrets  at  the  want  of  preferment  in  the  church, 
nor  from  any  motive  of  distinction  or  of  gain. 
Uniformity  in  matters  of  religion  was  pressed 
with  such  extreme  rigor,  that  a  voluntary  exile 
seemed  the  most  eligible  mode  of  escaping  from 
the  penalties  of  noncompliance.  1  he  accession 
of  Elizabeth  had,  it  is  true,  quenched  the  fires 
of  Smithfield,  and  put  an  end  to  the  easy  acqui 
sition  of  the  crown  of  martyrdom.  Her  long 
reign  had  established  the  Reformation,  but  tole 
ration  was  a  virtue  beyond  her  conception,  and 
beyond  the  age.  She  left  no  example  of  it  to 
her  successor;  and  he  was  not  of  a  character 
which  rendered  it  probable  that  a  sentiment 
either  so  wise  or  so  liberal  should  originate  with 
him.  At  the  present  period  it  seems  incredible, 
that  the  learned,  accomplished,  unassuming,  and 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  183 

inoffensive  Robinson,  should  neither  be  tolerated 
in  his  own  peaceful  mode  of  worship  in  his  own 
country,  nor  suffered  quietly  to   depart  from  it. 
Yet  such  was  the  fact.     He  left  his  country  by 
stealth,    that   he   might  elsewhere   enjoy  those 
rights  which  ought  to  belong  to  men  in  all  coun 
tries.     The  embarkation  of  the  Pilgrims  for  Hol 
land  is  deeply  interesting,  from  its  circumstances, 
and  also  as  it  marks  the  character  of  the  times, 
independently  of  its  connexion  with  names  now 
incorporated  with  the  history  of  empire.      The 
embarkation  was  intended  to  be  in  the  night, 
that  it  might  escape  the  notice  of  the  officers  of 
government.     Great  pains  had  been  taken  to  se 
cure  boats,  which  should  come  undiscovered  to 
the  shore,  and  receive  the  fugitives ;   and  fre 
quent  disappointments  had  been  experienced  in 
this  respect.      At  length   the    appointed   time 
came,  bringing  with  it  unusual  severity  of  cold 
and  rain.     An  unfrequented   and  barren  heath, 
on  the  shores  of  Lincolnshire,  was  the    select 
ed  spot,  where  the  feet  of  the  Pilgrims  were 
to   tread,  for   the   last   time,  the    land  of  their 
fathers. 

The  vessel  which  was  to  receive  them,  did 
not  come  until  the  next  day,  and  in  the  mean, 
time  the  little  band  was  collected,  and  men  and 


184  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

women  arid  children  and  baggage  were  crowded 
together,  in  melancholy  and  distressed  confusion. 
The  sea  was  rough,  and  the  women  and  children 
already  sick,  from  their  passage  down  the  river 
to  the  place  of  embarcation.  At  length  the 
wished  for  boat  silently  and  fearfully  approaches 
the  shore,  and  men  and  women  and  children, 
shaking  with  fear  and  with  cold,  as  many  as  the 
small  vessel  could  bear,  venture  off  on  a  dan 
gerous  sea.  Immediately  the  advance  of  horses 
is  heard  from  behind,  armed  men  appear,  and 
those  not  yet  embarked  are  seized,  and  taken 
into  custody.  In  the  hurry  of  the  moment,  there 
had  been  no  regard  to  the  keeping  together  of 
families,  in  the  first  embarcation,  and  on  account 
of  the  appearance  of  the  horsemen,  the  boat 
never  returned  for  the  residue.  Those  who  had 
got  away,  and  those  who  had  not,  were  in  equal 
distress.  A  storm  of  great  violence,  and  long 
duration,  arose  at  sea,  which  not  only  protracted 
the  voyage,  rendered  distressing  by  the  want  of 
all  those  accommodations  which  the  interruption 
of  the  embarcation  had  occasioned,  but  also 
forced  the  vessel  out  of  her  course,  and  menaced 
immediate  shipwreck ;  while  those  on  shore, 
when  they  were  dismissed  from  the  custody  of 
the  officers  of  justice,  having  no  longer  homes 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  185 

or  houses  to  retire  to,  and  their  friends  and  pro- 
teqtors  being  already  gone,  became  objects  of 
necessary  charity,  as  well  as  of  deep  commi 
seration. 

NEW  ENGLAND. 

It  cannot  have  escaped  the  notice  of  any  gen 
tleman  present,  that  in  the  course  of  the  contro 
versy,  pains  have  been  taken  to  affect  the  cha 
racter  and  the  success  of  the  present  chief  ma 
gistrate,  by  exciting  odium  towards  that  part  of 
the  country  in  which  he  was  born  and  to  which 
he  belongs.  Sneers,  contumely,  reproach,  every 
thing  that  gentlemen  could  say,  arid  many  things 
which  gentlemen  could  not  say,  have  been  uttered 
against  New  England.  I  am  sure,  sir,  every 
true  son  of  New  England  must  receive  such 
things,  when  they  come  from  sources  which 
ought  to  be  considered  respectable,  with  a  feel 
ing  of  just  indignation;  and  when  proceeding 
from  elsewhere,  with  contempt.  If  there  be  one 
among  ourselves,  who  can  be  induced,  by  any 
motives,  to  join  in  this  cry  against  New  Eng 
land,  he  disgraces  the  New  England  mother 
who  bore  him,  the  New  England  father  who 
bred  and  nurtured  him,  and  the  New  England 
atmosphere,  which  first  supplied  respiration  to 

16* 


136  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

those  lungs  now  so  unworthily  employed  in  ut 
tering  calumnies  against  his  country.  Persons, 
not  known  till  yesterday,  and  having  little  chance 
of  being  remembered  beyond  to-morrow,  have 
affected  to  draw  a  distinction  between  the  Pa 
triot  States  and  the  States  of  New  England  ;  as 
signing  the  last  to  the  present  President,  and  the 
rest  to  his  rival.  I  do  not  wonder,  sir,  at  the  in 
dignation  and  scorn  which  I  perceive  the  recital 
of  this  injustice  produces  here.  Nothing  else 
was  to  be  expected.  Faneuil  Hall  is  not  a  place 
where  one  is  expected  to  hear  with  indifference 
that  New  England  is  not  to  be  counted  among 
the  Patriot  States.  The  Patriot  States  1  What 
State  was  it,  sir,  that  was  patriotic  when  patri 
otism  cost  something]  Where,  but  in  New 
England,  did  the  great  drama  of  the  revolution 
open  'I  Where,  but  on  the  soil  of  Massachusetts, 
was  the  first  blood  poured  out,  in  the  cause  of 
Liberty  and  Independence  ?  Where,  sooner 
than  here,  where  earlier  than  within  the  walls 
which  now  surround  us,  was  patriotism  found, 
when  to  be  patriotic  was  to  endanger  houses 
and  homes,  and  wives  and  children,  and  to  be 
ready  also  to  pay  for  the  reputation  of  patriotism 
by  the  sacrifice  of  blood  and  of  life  ] 

Not  farther  to  refer  to  her  revolutionary  me- 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  187 

rits,  it  may  be  truly  said  that  New  England  did 
her  part,  and  more  than  her  part,  in  the  estab 
lishment  of  the  present  government,  and  in  giving 
effect  to  the  measures  and  the  policy  of  the  first 
President.  Where,  sir,  did  the  measures  of 
Washington  find  the  most  active  friends,  and  the 
firmest  support]  Where  are  the  general  prin 
ciples  of  his  policy  most  widely  spread,  and 
most  deeply  seated  ?  If,  in  subsequent  periods, 
different  opinions  have  been  held,  by  different 
portions  of  her  people,  New  England  has,  ne 
vertheless,  been  always  obedient  to  the  laws, 
even  when  she  most  severely  felt  their  pressure, 
and  most  conscientiously  doubted  or  disbelieved 
their  propriety.  Every  great  and  permanent 
institution  of  the  country,  intended  for  defence 
or  for  improvement,  has  met  her  support.  And 
if  we  look  to  recent  measures,  on  subjects  highly 
interesting  to  the  community,  and  especially 
some  portions  of  it,  we  see  proofs  of  the  same 
steady  and  liberal  policy.  It  may  be  said,  with 
entire  truth,  and  it  ought  to  be  said,  and  ought 
to  be  known,  that  no  one  measure  for  internal 
improvement  has  been  carried  through  Congress, 
or  could  have  been  carried,  but  by  the  aid  of 
New  England  votes.  It  is  for  those  most  deep 
ly  interested  in  subjects  of  that  sort,  to  consider 


188  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

in  season,  how  far  the  continuance  of  the  same 
aid  is  necessary  for  the  further  prosecution  of  the 
same  objects.  From  the  interference  of  the  ge 
neral  government  in  making  roads  and  canals, 
New  England  has  as  little  to  hope  or  expect  as 
any  part  of  the  country.  She  has  hitherto  sup 
ported  them,  upon  principle,  and  from  a  sincere 
disposition  to  extend  the  blessings  and  the  bene 
ficence  of  the  government.  And,  sir,  I  confi 
dently  believe,  that  those  most  concerned  in  the 
success  of  these  measures,  feel  towards  her  re 
spect  and  friendship.  They  feel  that  she  has 
acted  fairly  and  liberally,  wholly  uninfluenced 
by  selfish  or  sinister  motives.  Those,  therefore, 
who  have  seen,  or  thought  they  saw,  an  object 
to  be  attained  by  exciting  dislike  and  odium  to 
wards  New  England,  are  not  likely  to  find  quite 
so  favorable  an  audience  as  they  have  expected. 
It  will  not  go  for  quite  so  much  as  wished,  to 
the  disadvantage  of  the  President,  that  he  is  a 
native  of  Massachusetts.  Nothing  is  wanting, 
but  that  we,  ourselves,  should  entertain  a  pro 
per  feeling  on  this  subject,  and  act  with  a  just 
regard  to  our  own  rights  and  our  own  duties.  If 
I  could  collect  around  me  the  whole  population 
of  New  England,  or  if  I  could  cause  my  voice 
to  be  heard  over  all  her  green  hills,  or  along 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  189 

every  one  of  her  pleasant  streams,  in  the  exer 
cise  of  true  filial  affection,  I  would  say  to  her,  in 
the  language  of  the  great  master  of  the  maxims 
of  life  and  conduct, 

"  This  above  all,  —  To  thine  own  self  be  true, 
And  it  must  follow,  as  the  night  the  day, 
Thou  canst  not  then  be  false  to  any  man." 

THE    GREEKS. 

As  little  reason  is  there  for  fearing  its  conse 
quences  upon  the  conduct  of  the  allied  powers. 
They  may,  very  naturally,  dislike  our  sentiments 
upon  the  subject  of  the  Greek  revolution  ;  but 
what  those  sentiments  are,  they  will  much  more 
explicitly  learn  in  the  President's  message,  than 
in  this  resolution.  They  might,  indeed,  prefer 
that  we  should  express  no  dissent  upon  the  doc 
trines  which  they  have  avowed,  and  the  applica 
tion  which  they  have  made  of  those  doctrines  to 
the  case  of  Greece.  But  I  trust  we  are  not  dis 
posed  to  leave  them  in  any  doubt  as  to  our  sen 
timents  upon  these  important  subjects.  They 
have  expressed  their  opinions,  and  do  not  call 
that  expression  of  opinion,  an  interference  ;  in 
which  respect  they  are  right,  as  the  expression  of 
opinion,  in  such  cases,  is  not  such  an  interference 
as  would  justify  the  Greeks  in  considering  the 


190  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

powers  as  at  war  with  them.  For  the  same  rea- 
son  ,any  expression  which  we  may  make,  of  dif 
ferent  principles  and  different  sympathies,  is  no 
interference.  No  one  would  call  the  President's 
message  an  interference;  and  yet  it  is  much 
stronger,  in  that  respect,  than  this  resolution.  If 
either  of  them  could  be  construed  to  be  an  inter 
ference,  no  doubt  it  would  be  improper,  at  least 
it  would  be  so  according  to  my  view  of  the  sub 
ject;  for  the  very  thing  which  I  have  attempted 
to  resist  in  the  course  of  these  observations,  is 
the  right  of  foreign  interference.  But  neither  the 
message,  nor  the  resolution,  has  that  character. 
There  is  not  a  power  in  Europe  that  can  sup 
pose,  that,  in  expressing  our  opinions  on  this  oc 
casion,  we  are  governed  by  any  desire  of  aggran 
dizing  ourselves,  or  of  injuring  others.  We  do 
no  more  than  to  maintain  those  established  prin 
ciples,  in  which  we  have  an  interest  in  common 
with  other  nations,  and  to  resist  the  introduction 
of  new  principles  and  new  rules,  calculated  to 
destroy  the  relative  independence  of  states,  and 
particularly  hostile  to  the  whole  fabric  of  our 
own  government. 

I  close,  then,  sir,  with  repeating,  that  the  ob 
ject  of  this  resolution  is,  to  avail  ourselves  of  the 
interesting  occasion  of  the  Greek  revolution,  to 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  191 

make  our  protest  against  the  doctrines  of  the 
allied  powers ;  both  as  they  are  laid  down  in 
principle,  and  as  they  are  applied  in  practice. 

I  think  it  right  too,  sir,  not  to  be  unseasonable 
in  the  expression  of  our  regard,  and,  as  far  as 
that  goes,  in  a  ministration  of  our  consolation,  to 
a  long  oppressed  and  now  struggling  people.  I 
am  not  of  those  who  would  in  the  hour  of  utmost 
peril,  withhold  such  encouragement  as  might  be 
properly  and  lawfully  given,  and  when  the  crisis 
should  be  past,  overwhelm  the  rescued  suiferer 
with  kindness  and  caresses.  The  Greeks  address 
the  civilized  world  with  a  pathos  not  easy  to  be 
resisted.  They  invoke  our  favor  by  more  mo 
ving  considerations  than  can  well  belong  to  the 
condition  of  any  other  people.  They  stretch  out 
their  arms  to  the  Christian  communities  of  the 
earth,  beseeching  them,  by  a  generous  recollec 
tion  of  their  ancestors,  by  the  consideration  of 
their  own  desolated  and  ruined  cities  and  villa 
ges,  by  their  wives  and  children,  sold  into  an  ac 
cursed  slavery,  by  their  own  blood,  which  they 
seem  willing  to  pour  out  like  water,  by  the  com 
mon  faith,  and  in  the  name,  which  unites  all 
Christians,  that  they  would  extend  to  them,  at 
least  some  token  of  compassionate  regard. 


192  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

IMPRISONMENT    FOR   DEBT. 

You  ask,  in  the  next  place,  what  I  think  of 
imprisonment  for  debt  in  any  case  where  there 
is  no  evidence  of  fraud.  Certainly  I  am  of  opi 
nion  that  there  should  be  no  imprisonment  for 
debt,  where  it  appears  that  no  fraud  has  been 
practised,  or  intended,  either  in  contracting  the 
debt,  or  in  omitting  to  pay  it.  But,  then,  it 
seems  to  me,  that,  when  a  man  does  not  fulfil 
a  lawful  promise,  he  ought  to  show  his  inability, 
and  to  show  also  that  his  own  conduct  has  been 
fair  and  honest.  He  ought  not  to  be  allowed 
merely  to  say  he  cannot  pay,  and  then  to  call  on 
the  creditor  to  prove  that  his  inability  is  pretend 
ed  or  fraudulent.  He  ought  to  show  why  he 
does  not  and  cannot  fulfil  his  contract,  and  to 
give  reasonable  evidence  that  he  has  not  acted 
fraudulently ;  and,  this  being  done,  his  person 
ought  to  be  held  no  longer.  In  the  first  place, 
the  creditor  is  entitled  to  the  oath  of  his  debtor, 
and,  in  the  next  place,  to  satisfactory  explanation 
of  any  suspicious  circumstances. 

There  are  two  sorts  of  fraud,  either  of  which, 
when  proved,  oughtto  prevent  a  liberation  of  the 
person,  viz. :  fraud  in  contracting  the  debt,  and 
fraud  in  concealing,  or  making  way  with,  the 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  193 

means  of  payment.  And  the  usual  provisions  of 
the  bankrupt  act  ought  to  be  added,  that  no  one 
should  be  discharged,  who  is  proved  to  have  lost 
money  in  any  species  of  gaming  ;  and  I  should 
include,  in  this  class,  all  adventurers  in  lotteries. 
Having  tendered  his  own  oath,  and  made  just 
explanation  of  any  circumstances  of  suspicion,  if 
there  be  such,  and  not  having  lost  money  by 
gaming,  the  debtor  ought  to  be  discharged  at 
once  ;  which  answers  another  of  your  questions  ; 
for  the  detention  of  thirty  days,  before  the  oath 
can  be  taken,  appears  to  me  wholly  useless. 

You  are  pleased  to  ask  whether,  in  my  judg 
ment,  Christians  can,  with  a  good  conscience,  im 
prison,  either  other  Christians,  or  infidels.  He 
would  be  very  little  of  a  Christian,  I  think,  who 
should  make  a  difference,  in  such  a  case,  and  be 
willing  to  use  a  degree  of  severity  towards  Jew 
or  Greek,  which  he  would  not  use  towards  one 
of  his  own  faith.  Whether  conscientious  men 
can  imprison  any  body  for  debt,  whom  they  do 
not  believe  dishonest  or  fraudulent,  is  a  question 
which  every  man,  while  the  law  allows  such  im 
prisonment,  must  decide  for  himself.  In  answer 
to  your  inquiry,  whether  I  have  found  it  neces 
sary  to  use  such  coercion,  in  regard  to  debts  of 
my  own,  I  have  to  say,  that  I  never  imprisoned 
17 


194  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

any  man  for  my  own  debt,  under  any  circum 
stances  ;  nor  have  I,  in  five  and  twenty  years' 
professional  practice,  ever  recommended  it  to 
others,  except  in  cases  where  there  was  manifest 
proof,  or  violent  and  unexplained  suspicion,  of 
intentional  fraud. 

IMPORTANCE    OF    THE    UNION. 

But  it  is  a  subject  of  which  my  heart  is  full, 
and  I  have  not  been  willing  to  suppress  the  ut 
terance  of  its  spontaneous  sentiments.     I  cannot 
even  now  persuade  myself  to  relinquish  it,  with 
out  expressing,  once  more,  my  deep  conviction, 
that  since  it  respects  nothing  less  than  the  Union 
of  the  States,  it  is  of  most  vital   and  essential 
importance  to  the   public  happiness.     I  profess, 
sir,  in  my  career  hitherto,  to  have  kept  steadily 
in  view  the  prosperity  and  honor  of  the  whole 
country,  and   the   preservation   of  our   federal 
Union.     It  is  to  that  Union  we  owe  our  safety 
at   home,    and   our   consideration    and    dignity 
abroad.  It  is  to  that  Union  that  we  are  chiefly  in 
debted  for  whatever  makes  us  most  proud  of  our 
country.     That  Union  we  reached  only  by  the 
discipline  of  our  virtues  in  the   severe  school  of 
adversity.     It  had  its  origin  in  the  necessities  of 
disordered    finance,    prostrate    commerce,   and 


BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER.  195 

ruined  credit.  Under  its  benign  influences,  these 
great  interests  immediately  awoke,  as  from  the 
dead,  and  sprang  forth  with  newness  of  life. 
Every  year  of  its  duration  has  teemed  with  fresh 
proofs  of  its  utility  and  its  blessings ;  and,  al 
though  our  territory  has  stretched  out  wider  and 
wider,  and  our  population  farther  and  farther, 
they  have  not  outrun  its  protection  or  its  benefits. 
It  has  been  to  us  all  a  copious  fountain  of  na 
tional,  social,  and  personal  happiness.  I  have 
not  allowed  myself  sir.  to  look  beyond  the  Union, 
to  see  what  might  lie  hidden  in  the  dark  recess 
behind.  I  have  not  coolly  weighed  the  chances 
of  preserving  liberty,  when  the  bonds  that  unite 
us  together  shall  be  broken  asunder.  I  have  not 
accustomed  myself  to  hang  over  the  precipice  of 
disunion,  to  see  whether,  with  my  short  sight,  I 
can  fathom  the  depth  of  the  abyss  below ;  nor 
could  1  regard  him  as  a  safe  counsellor  in  the 
affairs  of  this  government,  whose  thoughts  should 
be  mainly  bent  on  considering,  not  how  the  Union 
should  be  best  preserved,  but  how  tolerable 
might  be  the  condition  of  the  people  when  it 
shall  be  broken  up  and  destroyed.  While  the 
Union  lasts,  we  have  high,  exciting,  gratifying 
prospects  spread  out  before  us,  for  us  and  our 
children.  Beyond  that  I  seek  not  to  penetrate 


196  BEAUTIES  OF  WEBSTER. 

the  veil.  God  grant  that  in  my  day,  at  least,  that 
curtain  may  not  rise.  God  grant  that  on  my 
vision  never  may  be  opened  what  lies  beyond. 
When  my  eyes  shall  be  turned  to  behold,  for  the 
last  time,  the  sun  in  heaven,  may  I  not  see  him 
shining  on  the  broken  and  dishonored  fragments 
of  a  once  glorious  union  ;  on  states  dissevered, 
discordant,  belligerent;  on  aland  rent  with  civil 
feuds,  or  drenched,  it  may  be,  in  fraternal  blood! 
Let  their  last  feeble  and  lingering  glance  rather 
behold  the  gorgeous  ensign  of  the  Republic,  now 
known  arid  honored  throughout  the  earth,  still 
full  high  advanced ;  its  armies  and  trophies 
streaming  in  their  original  lustre,  not  a  stripe 
erased  or  polluted,  nor  a  single  star  obscured  — 
bearing  for  its  motto  no  such  miserable  interro 
gatory  as,  What  is  all  this  icorth  ?  nor  those 
other  words  of  delusion  and  folly,  Liberty  first, 
and  Union  afterwards  ;  but  every  where  spread 
all  over,  in  characters  of  living  light,  blazing  on 
all  its  ample  folds,  as  they  float  over  the  sea  and 
over  the  land,  and  in  every  wind  under  the  whole 
heavens,  that  other  sentiment,  dear  to  every 
true  American  heart,  LIBERTY  AND  UNION,  NOW 

AND  FOR  EVER,  ONE  AND  INSEPARABLE. 
THE     END. 


14  DAY  USE 

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REC'D  LD 


REC'D  LD 


UUf  b 


AIIR  7 


VA  045! 7 


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THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


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